The death of a 16-year-old foster girl in a Baltimore hotel room has been ruled a suicide by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, a spokesperson said Tuesday.
The cause of death of Kanaiyah Ward is diphenhydramine intoxication, said Stephanie Moore, special assistant to the medical examiner. The drug, the active ingredient in Benadryl, is an antihistamine available over the counter used to treat allergies.
The girl was found dead on Sept. 22 at the Residence Inn by Marriott at the Johns Hopkins medical campus on Wolfe Street. In what has been a controversial practice, she was staying in the hotel with a caregiver under contract to the state Department of Human Services, which runs the foster care system.
The girl’s mother, Brooke Ward, referred a call from The Baltimore Sun to her attorney, Thomas Doyle. He said he had not known that the medical examiner had determined the cause of death.
“There still [are] a lot of questions: Where was the supervision? What were the circumstances?” Doyle said. “Why was she in this hotel? Why was she not in a better facility?”
She was found at the hotel by Baltimore Police, who had responded to a call about an overdose there.
Given that the medical examiner has ruled the death a suicide, the police department has closed its investigation, spokeswoman Lindsey Eldridge said.
DHS has not yet responded to The Sun’s questions about the medical examiner’s ruling. The department has previously said it has substantially reduced the number of foster youth staying at hotels, to 18 in the days after Kanaiyah’s death.
Doyle said Kanaiyah had been in foster care for about two years, and had been placed in group homes before being sent to stay in the hotel with a contracted caregiver known as a one-on-one. Doyle said the girl was on medication for mental health issues.
“Mom was trying to get her in a group home,” Doyle said. “She wasn’t getting any treatment except for some medication.”
She had attended Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts since September 2024, according to Baltimore City Public Schools. Before entering foster care, Kanaiyah lived with her mother and grandparents in Prince George’s County, Doyle said.
DHS has been under fire for its supervision of the state’s more than 3,000 foster children, who have been removed from their homes often for abuse or neglect. While they optimally are placed in family settings, some have ended up staying in hotels, hospitals or even social service agency buildings.
Last year, a foster youth was accused of rape at an Owings Mills hotel where he had been staying with a one-on-one.
In September, a scathing audit by the state’s Office of Legislative Services found the department had failed to properly vet its vendors and service providers, resulting in sex offenders having access to children. It also said 280 foster children had been placed in hotels under the supervision of unlicensed providers between 2023 and 2024.
“I think the audit is about as damning as any can get,” Doyle said.
The Towson-based Fenwick Behavioral Services was the contractor for Kanaiyah’s care. Its CEO, Eric Fenwick, declined to comment but sent a statement via a communications firm.
“For over eight years, Fenwick Behavioral Services has been dedicated to providing compassionate support services to young people in Maryland’s foster care system,” the emailed statement said. “Our commitment and standards are at the highest level because of what our young people deserve.
“We at Fenwick Behavioral Services are devastated by this loss,” the statement said. “The privacy rights of our clients and families must be honored and therefore, we cannot comment further, except to say that we join everyone in mourning the tragic loss of this child.”
An overdose or intoxication of the drug “can be either accidental or intentional,” according to a paper, “Diphenhydramine Toxicity,” on the National Institutes of Health’s website.
“While intentional diphenhydramine overdose/intoxication can be observed in individuals attempting self-harm/suicide, there is documentation of individuals utilizing diphenhydramine to produce pleasant and euphoric effects,” the authors wrote.
The medical examiner’s office referred questions about its ruling to the autopsy report, which could not be obtained by late afternoon.
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