Swanietra Cooke (Tarrant County Jail)
FORT WORTH, Texas - A Fort Worth mother is facing charges for her 1-month-old son’s fatal meth overdose.
What we know:
Swanietra Cooke was arrested on Tuesday and booked into the Tarrant County jail.
The 36-year-old mother is facing a manslaughter charge for the death of her 1-month-old son, Zachariah, in July 2025.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office recently determined that baby Zachariah’s death was caused by methamphetamine toxicity. His death was ruled a homicide.
Dig deeper:
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Cooke admitted that baby Zachariah was initially taken away from her because he was born with methamphetamines in his system.
She also admitted that she had been using the drug for about a year.
The baby’s father admitted that he and Cooke would "get together to use drugs, methamphetamine, and have consensual sex." And a second child told investigators that Cooke routinely smoked in the home.
The investigators reportedly found two glass pipes commonly used to smoke meth on a side table just a few feet away from both the baby’s crib and his mother’s bed.
Cooke’s drug tests in the months following the baby’s death came back positive.
$10M in meth found hidden in salad greens at Texas-Mexico border
The nearly 1,153 pounds of alleged narcotics were discovered hidden inside a commercial vehicle carrying a shipment of lettuce from Mexico.
What they're saying:
The arrest warrant for Cooke states that investigators have reason to believe she recklessly committed the offense of manslaughter.
The Source: The information in this story comes from Swanietra Cooke's arrest warrant affidavit, jail records, and medical examiner records.