Both her parents have pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of their youngest child, who had clonidine, a blood pressure medication, in her system.
Little Joycelynn Dylewski was found struggling to breathe inside an apartment in Corinth, in update New York, in February 2025.(Image: Facebook)
A three-year-old girl has died after she became so infested with lice that she became anaemic. Little Joycelynn Dylewski was found struggling to breathe inside an apartment in Corinth, in update New York, in February 2025. The toddler was so ravaged by lice that she had developed the blood condition anaemia, which devastated her internal organs including her heart, as per reports by the Times Union. She was rushed to hospital from her squalid home, located about an hour outside of Albany, where she later died.
Medical examiners found that she had clonidine in her system; a blood pressure medication. A common side effect of clonidine is weakness and drowsiness, indicating that she may have been sedated.
Upon further investigation, Joycelynn’s death was later ruled as a homicide following a multitude of evidence that indicated she had suffered from acute and chronic neglect at the hands of her parents, Matthew and Samantha Dylewski. Both have pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of their youngest child.
At the time of the Joycelynn’s death her abusive mother Samantha, aged 33, claimed that it was the three-year-old’s own fault she died as she “fought her too much when she tried to apply treatment” to the lice infesting her scalp in a stunning display of no remorse nor responsibility for the death of her toddler.
Her mother also lied about the clonidine found in the little girl’s system by doctors, with Samantha attempting to cover up her actions by putting the blame on her son for leaving the blood pressure medication out which is how she said Joycelynn had ingested them. Her parents seemingly did not count on investigators actually investigating her death, with phone records and their internet search history quickly disproving Samantha’s lie. As per Saratoga County First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Buckley, text messages between Samantha and her husband Matthew showed that they had a conversation about the drug, a court has heard. “Her husband tells her she can give it to Joycelynn. Shortly after Joycelynn’s death, there’s an internet search on the cellphone to search for how long it would stay in the system,’ Ms Buckley added.
Samantha also claimed that her daughter had a weak heart, but according to Buckley, Joycelynn’s heart was normal. Saratoga County Judge James R Davis said during Samantha’s sentencing in early June that other insects, including a dead cockroach, were also found on the little girl’s body.
Investigators had told the court the three-year-old’s teeth were “rotten and black”, the judge added, before adding that the couple’s pre-sentence report was “the most horrific he has ever read”. Other than the severe lice infestation living inside the foul apartment, there were also flies, rotting food, and a clogged kitchen sink filled with muck. Davis told Samantha as she sobbed: “Your daughter suffered over a long period of time. “Even the other children could see that she suffered because of your neglect. It’s a gift to have a child. You had several children, and all of them suffered at your hands.”
Both she and her husband were sentenced to up to four years in state prison over the death of their daughter. They were also issued a full restraining from their four surviving children, whom they cannot talk to or see until 2038. As a result of the heinous neglect suffered by the Dylewski children, New York State Senator James Tedisco and Assemblyman Matt Simpson has proposed new legislation to ensure parents like Samantha and Matthew languish in prison for longer. The legislation, known as Joycelynn’s Law, would see the maximum sentence for criminally negligent homicide increased to 20 years if passed.
