American police have arrested a babysitter for making three children crush pills into powder and snort it until they were unconscious.

Suspect Deana Nicole Byrd was seized by officers from the Evansville Police Department on 28th June.

She is charged with three counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, three counts of dealing a controlled substance with enhancing circumstances, and one count of theft.

The alleged crime was discovered when the mother went to pick her children up at the babysitter’s home in Evansville, Indiana state, and found them unconscious.

After she called the emergency services, police officers and paramedics went to the home, where they revived the two boys.

The brothers, aged eight and nine, “were stumbling and falling when trying to get into the ambulance”, according to reports.

Their sister, aged 15, was still unconscious when she was put in the ambulance.

One of the boys told an officer that Byrd, 24, had given them some of her pills.

The three siblings were taken to hospital and had recovered at the time of writing.

While searching the home, investigators found multiple orange pill capsules broken in half on the dressing table in the bedroom.

They also found a white powdery substance nearby, as well as a “rolled-up Ramen noodle cup lid”.

The mother told the police she had dropped her children off at Byrd’s house the previous night.

When she went back the following afternoon, she found the babysitter alone on the front porch looking “impaired” and “speaking very softly”.

After finding her children unconscious inside, she called the emergency services.

She then confronted Byrd, who allegedly replied that she “wasn’t going to jail for no kids”.

When the girl regained consciousness in hospital, she told the police that the babysitter had given them Klonopin, Adderall, and Lyrica.

Klonopin is an anticonvulsant or antiepileptic drug used to treat panic attacks, Adderall is a combination medication used to treat ADHD, and Lyrica is used to treat pain caused by nerve damage.

The affidavit said: “She said Byrd showed her how to break open the orange pill capsules and make lines with them to snort.

“The 15-year-old said Byrd showed them how to snort pills using a rolled-up Ramen noodle cup lid.

“She said her and her brothers took about 3-4 of each of the three different pills Byrd had given them.

“The 15-year-old said after the pills took effect, she and her brothers began falling over and could hardly stand up.

“She said she recalled seeing her brothers falling and that she recalled puking at one point and then coming out of the bathroom and falling again.”

It transpired that Byrd has three children of her own, who had previously been taken away by the Indiana Department of Child Services.

During questioning, the babysitter denied giving the children the pills and referred to one of the siblings as an “a-hole”.

She is being held on remand at the Vanderburgh County Jail.