SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco mother and father failed to show up in court to face murder charges Thursday for the death of their 2-year-old daughter.
The toddler was fatally poisoned by fentanyl at home on Feb. 12, prosecutors said, and several hours passed before anyone called 911 for help.
This week prosecutors charged the girl’s mother, 38-year-old Michelle Price, and father, 43-year-old Steve Ramirez, with second-degree murder. Defense attorneys appeared in front of a San Francisco Superior Court judge on behalf of the parents, who are now wanted for failing to appear for their arraignment.
Ramirez’s attorney told the judge that he did not know where his client was, while Price’s attorney said her client may have had problems with transportation. The judge issued bench warrants.
Defense attorneys said the parents are grieving their daughter and may be struggling with drug addiction. Ramirez’s attorney added that his client is feeling panicked and accused the district attorney of turning the case into a media circus.
Defense attorneys appear in a San Francisco courtroom on behalf of parents charged with murder on April 16, 2026. (KRON4 Photo)
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins held a news conference Wednesday. She told reporters that the case is the first time San Francisco has charged anyone with murder in connection to a fatal fentanyl overdose.
Just after 5 a.m. on Feb. 12, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call from someone reporting that a child was not breathing inside an apartment on 18th Street near Dolores Park.
When paramedics and police officers entered the dimly-lit apartment, they discovered that the home was “filthy and in extreme disarray,” “consistent with hoarding conditions,” and littered with drugs.
Jenkins said, “There wasn’t really anywhere safe for this child to be inside of this home.”
Price spoke with slurred speech and an emotionless demeanor on the day her daughter died, according to the DA. The toddler’s father attempted to flee the crime scene on a bicycle, and he changed his story several times while talking to police, prosecutors said.
Drug tests revealed high levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine in the blood of both Price and Ramirez at the time they were arrested. Someone gave the toddler Narcan before paramedics arrived.
“Ramirez waited a significant amount of time after discovering her overdose before asking the front desk clerk to call 911, impeding any ability of paramedics to save her,” Assistant District Attorney Nathan Quigley wrote in court documents.
Investigators concluded, “Price and Ramirez were raising their daughter together in unit 104 … they both had a long-standing history of using fentanyl … they knew that fentanyl was dangerous to human life, and … they were aware that she had overdosed prior to the arrival of the paramedics,” Quigley wrote.
After they were no-shows, the judge ordered the toddler’s parents to appear in court Friday. Prosecutors said the father is a flight risk while out of custody, writing, “Ramirez’s pattern of lying, minimizing, and direct flight demonstrate that he is an ongoing flight risk.”