HERNANDO COUNTY, Florida—A 28-year-old Lake County woman is locked up in the Hernando County Detention Center on no bond facing several charges, including first degree murder, for providing the fentanyl that killed her cellmate in 2021.
According to a Hernando County Sheriff’s Office probable cause affidavit, Lauren Ann Moon, 28, concealed pills in her vagina when she was booked into the Hernando County Jail on Sept. 27, 2021, for two counts of failure to appear. Moon was not given a body cavity search because she falsely claimed to be pregnant, “This was a deliberate act to bypass the body scanner due to the defendant being in unlawful possession of an unknown amount of narcotics,” a HCSO detective noted in the affidavit. Moon was then assigned to a cell due to being held on no bond.
The following morning, Moon, who uses a Eustis address and a Sorrento address, and her cellmate talked about their charges and choice of narcotics and Moon told the victim she had what she purported to be Xanax and asked the victim if she wanted some. Moon told an HCSO detective she removed the pills from her vagina and took one and a half bars and gave a half of a bar to the victim. Less than 20 minutes later, the victim fell unconscious and she was transported to Bayfront Health Brooksville, where she later died.
The victim’s cause of death was later determined to be a fentanyl overdose.
Moon was released on the failure to appear charges on Oct. 22, 2021, and a warrant was issued for her arrest in her cellmate’s death on April 5. She was picked up in Lake County on April 6 and transferred to Hernando County on May 11. She is facing three charges, including possession of a controlled substance, introduction of contraband into a detention facility and first degree murder.
