By Marlene Lenthang -
NBC News
The family of a 19-month-old girl who died after allegedly being exposed to fentanyl at an Airbnb property in Florida has sued the vacation rental company over the girl's death.
Enora Lavenir died on August 7, 2021, while her family was staying at an apartment in Wellington, Florida, during a visit from France, her parents say in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County court. .
The girl died of acute fentanyl poisoning
, which the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office ruled accidental.
It is unclear where the drug, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, came from, nor how the girl ingested it.
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The lawsuit alleges that although the Airbnb listing described it as a “quiet place to stay,” the property was used as a party house.
Days before the French family's arrival, according to the indictment, someone arranged a gathering where drugs were used.
Enora was exposed to fentanyl residue left in the accommodation, according to the lawsuit charging Airbnb, the apartment's owner, property manager and a previous guest with negligence in the girl's death.
how Enora died
Enora's mother, Lydie Lavenir, reserved a four-bedroom, two-bathroom lake house in an upscale residential neighborhood for August 6-9, 2021, for a vacation with her husband and five children, the lawsuit says.
The family checked into the accommodation on 6 August.
Enora played and enjoyed herself with her brothers and the next morning she slept with her older sister in one of the beds in the house.
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After she had been in her nap for over an hour, Lavenir went to check on her and
"found her unconscious and foaming at the mouth
. "
Her mother yelled for help and performed chest compressions on her, the lawsuit filed in December states.
The family called 911 and she Enorashe was taken to HCA Florida Palms West Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Boris, father of the minor, recalled the terror he felt when he heard his wife's screams when he found the girl.
“I heard: 'Enora is dead! Enora is dead!"
he told NBC Nightly News.
Lydie Lavenir and Boris Lavenir.NBC News
The coroner's report revealed that the girl had a "lethal level of fentanyl" in her blood, a drug her parents said they had never heard of before.
Overdoses of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, caused more than 56,000 deaths in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of fatalities that year was 18 times higher than in 2013.
After months of investigation, it is unclear where the fentanyl that killed Enora came from
.
"There was no sign of any illegal drugs or narcotics at the crime scene and his death was listed as accidental," the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said in an incident report.
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Enora's case is closed pending leads, authorities said.
The coroner's inquest report states that her parents and the girl's baby formula came back negative on drug tests.
In the police report, the investigators mention that a resident of the neighborhood denounced that two nights before the arrival of the Lavenir family a "big party" was held at the place and that they were informed that there were "several parties and people renting the property before the arrival of the family.
Family accuses Airbnb of "negligence" and claims rental was a "party house"
The lawsuit alleges that Airbnb failed to ensure that the property was safe for the Lavenir family.
Although Airbnb says that parties and drugs are prohibited in its rentals, the company did not issue a warning about the risks or ensure that the spaces were properly sanitized, according to the lawsuit.
"Actually, the premises in question had a history of use as a party house and days prior had hosted a group of approximately a dozen adults who used cocaine and other drugs, including fentanyl, among others, throughout the house," says the lawsuit.
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It further alleges that Airbnb's cleaning procedures are "inadequate to decontaminate a property and eliminate the risk" of drugs or residue.
Airbnb had a duty to reasonably care for the safety of its guests and provide a rental free of drugs and debris left behind by previous guests, as well as adequately warn of the risk of harm, according to the lawsuit.
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An Airbnb spokesperson offered condolences to Enora's family in a brief statement that did not mention the lawsuit.
"Our hearts go out to the Lavenir family and their loved ones for their devastating loss," the spokesperson said.
The Lavenir family's reservation was the first time the property had been booked through Airbnb
, but it had been rented out on other rental sites.
The lawsuit also accuses the rental owner, Ronald M. Cortamilia, and his manager, Yulia A. Timpy, who controlled the reservations, as well as former guest Aaron Kornhauser, who booked the space through Vrbo vacation rentals, with negligence.
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The lawsuit says that days before the Lavenir family's registration date, Aaron Kornhauser was visiting Palm Beach County for a concert.
He rented the property from July 30 to August 1, 2021 for six adults.
However, Kornhauser ended up staying there with 11 other adults, according to the complaint.
He carried or allowed others to carry "illicit drugs," including cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana, which were consumed throughout the facility, including the bedrooms and kitchen counter, the lawsuit alleges.
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The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office incident report indicates that investigators interviewed Kornhauser, who said people at the residence were using cocaine and marijuana, but not fentanyl.
He told authorities that he could not explain how the fentanyl could have gotten into the residence.
In a response to the lawsuit, an attorney for Kornhauser said that "the negligence of the decedent's parents was the sole or contributing proximate cause of the alleged injuries and damages."
The attorney alleged that the damages in the lawsuit were caused by the negligence of other parties over whom Kornhauser had no control and cannot be held responsible, including the co-defendants and anyone present on the property, such as cleaners or subsequent tenants.
An attorney for Cortamilia, the property's owner, also blamed the parents, saying that "the negligence and careless conduct of the decedent's parents was the sole or proximate contributing cause of the alleged damages."
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NBC News reached out to lawyers for Kornhauser and Vrbo for comment but received no response.
A lawyer for Cortamilia had no further comment.
Timpy, the manager, has no attorney in online court records.
Attempts to contact Timpy were unsuccessful.
Authorities tried to speak to previous tenants and spoke to neighbors, but were ultimately unable to determine how Enora ingested the fentanyl and where the drug came from, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office incident report.
The Lavenir family's attorney, Thomas Scolaro, said the family remains "devastated" after the loss of their daughter and hopes to draw attention to the dangers of fentanyl.
“Fentanyl is incredibly powerful.
We're only talking about a couple of grains of salt-sized particles, which would cause this level of toxicity in a 19-month-old baby,” she said.
“I am not surprised that the sheriff's office did not find a large stockpile of fentanyl in the unit,” Scolaro added.
“But what we do know, based on the chronology and the statements of the previous tenants, is that there were drugs in that unit and that the child was not exposed anywhere else, period.
There is literally no other conceivable place this kid could have found this fentanyl than in that rental house."