Brittney Leigh Hensley was arrested in Alabama and extradited to Mississippi to face child abuse charges.

• Police responded to a report of a child overdosing on pills at an extended stay motel in Ocean Springs, Miss., on July 6

• During the months-long investigation that followed, the girl’s mother, Brittney Leigh Hensley, allegedly fled to Alabama, where she was apprehended on October 15.

• According to authorities, Hensley claimed to have also taken large amounts of drugs, but blood tests did not support his story.

A Mississippi mother has been accused of making a suicide pact with her young daughter — and then, after her 10-year-old took the pills, breaking the pact herself, Ocean Springs’ deputy police chief said. Steven Dye, for PEOPLE.

Brittney Leigh Hensley, 37, was arrested by Ocean Springs police and charged with child abuse causing serious bodily injury, according to her online. reservation register. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, she was taken into custody at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center in Pascagoula, Miss., where she is being held on $500,000 bond.

The case did not go to a grand jury, PEOPLE has learned.

“It’s very tragic,” Dye tells PEOPLE in a phone interview, noting that police are trying to turn a serious case over to the local DA’s office. “There are cases we wish would never happen, but at least when we work these cases and catch the bad guy, we can hold their feet to the fire for what they did. That’s the main thing for us: people need to be held accountable for their actions.”

Dye notes that the harrowing details of the case in the quiet Mississippi beach town had reverberating effects on the small seaside community. “No one wants to see a child hurt,” he says, adding that the officers involved in the case have children of their own, and such child abuse cases are “always a little bit harder on us.”

He adds: “Anytime we’re dealing with a child in a situation like this, it’s very difficult. It tugs at our heartstrings.”

Police first responded to a report of a child overdose at a Studio 6 Motel in Ocean Springs around 6:25 p.m. on July 6, Police Chief Ryan Lemaire confirms to PEOPLE. The 10-year-old girl — whose name has not been released — was unresponsive when police arrived.

In the motel room, officers located “several unknown capsules and empty bottles of prescription medication in a green backpack” near the child, according to Lemaire. The drugs were allegedly prescribed to Hensley.

Both mother and child were taken separately by ambulance to Ocean Springs Hospital, where doctors intubated both mother and daughter, the chief says, adding that the daughter was then airlifted to Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Alabama in the US for further treatment and survived.

Investigators later learned that Hensley and her daughter had entered into a “suicide pact,” with both allegedly agreeing to take the drug, Lemaire says. The deputy police chief adds that Hensley claimed to investigators that he also took pills, detailing the amount of medication and the length of time he took it.

But citing the doctor’s statement, Dye tells PEOPLE that blood tests done on the mother while she was hospitalized were not consistent with her statements to investigators. He also says the doctor concluded that if the mother’s statements were “true and accurate, then she would have died.”

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The exact results of the blood tests have not been released, but Dye says her claims didn’t add up compared to what was found in her system.

Citing their preliminary findings, Dye says investigators believe the mother decided not to follow through on the suicide pact.

In the case against Hensley, police say he fled to Alabama, where he once lived and had family. In a statement posted on Facebook on Oct. 14, Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers said the mother was wanted in connection with a felony child abuse charge involving the poisoning of a minor.

Authorities then issued a warrant for her arrest. On October 15, Huntsville police arrested her in Alabama.

She was later extradited to Mississippi. As of Oct. 31, she had not been charged and it was unclear if Hensley had yet retained an attorney.

Lemaire says the 10-year-old is now in the custody of Mississippi Child Protective Services.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to Crisis Text Line to 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.