Woman goes to prison after her son dies of an overdose, girl is sexually abused in a hotel

The mother of a Dauphin County child who died of a drug overdose in a hotel room must spend at least six years in prison for child endangerment.

Janae Murray, 41, of the Paxtang area, also allowed a 14-year-old girl in her care to use illegal street drugs and be sexually abused by Murray’s 36-year-old boyfriend in 2021, court documents say.

The abuse began when the girl was 14 years old and continued until she was 15.

Dauphin County Judge William Tully imposed a prison sentence of six to 16 years last week while Murray appeared before him and pleaded guilty to seven counts – one for each child – in two separate cases.

According to court documents, another woman had custody of the children at the time of both incidents. The children ran away to be with Murray, who put them up in hotel rooms while she worked at a diner.

The first child, a 14-year-old boy, suffered a fentanyl overdose on October 29, 2021, at the Red Roof Inn on Corporate Circle in Susquehanna Township. Police said Murray rented the room for him from October 27 to 30.

The woman’s conviction is the culmination of a series of criminal proceedings relating to the care of the children during the time they ran away from their guardians.

Police said at the time that the deceased boy had purchased the fentanyl for Cheyenne McGinness, a woman now 26 years old in the hotel room. McGinness was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to enticement of a minor for exposing the boy to drugs.

Adalberto Rodriguez-Roman, who gave the teenager the fentanyl, pleaded guilty on June 11 to administering the drug resulting in death and was sentenced to four to eight years in prison.

Police initially found the 14-year-old boy at the hotel in Susquehanna Township and took him to Hershey Medical Center for treatment.

Meanwhile, the teenager told police she learned how to “shoot heroin” and “smoke meth” from Murray’s boyfriend, Joseph Bohn. Her toxicology report at the hospital showed she had cocaine, marijuana, benzodiazepines and amphetamines in her blood and that Murray knew about her drug use, police said.

The teenager later told police during an interview in 2022 that Murray knew Bohn was sexually abusing her but looked the other way. Murray sent the girl a message on December 21, 2020, admitting to the ongoing sexual assault and reprimanding her for it.

“How could you do this to me?” Murray texted the teenager. “What the (expletive) is wrong with you?”

Murray told the girl she would go to police the next day and file a complaint against Bohn, police said. But Murray never reported the sexual abuse to police, Dauphin County Prosecutor Katie Adam said.

A recorded phone conversation from two days before the scolding showed the teen talking on the phone with Bohn, who was incarcerated in the Perry County Jail on other charges, court records show. The teen asked if she could take a pregnancy test and a DNA test, but Bohn advised her against a DNA test.

“(The teen) was concerned that Murray was getting a DNA test and that it would lead to charges,” police wrote. It turned out the teen was not pregnant, Adam said.

Bohn pleaded guilty to sexual assault and related charges on April 29 and was sentenced to three to six years in prison by Dauphin County Judge Deborah Curcillo.

Murray pleaded guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of interfering with child custody, and possession with intent to resell. All of these counts are felonies. She also pleaded guilty to two counts of enticement of a minor.

Prosecutors dropped two charges against Murray for sexual exploitation of children and unauthorized contact with minors.

“Murray failed as a mother in the worst possible way,” Adam said. “His death was preventable.”

The girl is safe and has recovered from her drug use, according to Adam.

“These kids took the right path years ago and she couldn’t just stay away from them,” Adam said.