MANCHESTER, NH – The owner of an illegal in-home daycare, charged with lacing children’s food and infant formula with melatonin so they would sleep, is now facing a second-degree assault charge accusing her of force-feeding a child a hot dog.
The Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District grand jury issued the indictment against Sally Dreckmann, 52, formerly of 316 Amory St. The grand jury also indicted her on 33 other offenses related to the melatonin allegations including 10 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, 3 counts of falsifying physical evidence, 10 misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct, and 10 counts of misdemeanor simple assault.
Dreckmann and three of her employees were arrested in June.
Between Jan. 1 and April 26, 2024, Dreckmann forced a piece of hotdog into the mouth of R.R., a two-year-old, causing the child to choke and suffer impeded breathing, according to the indictment.
The other indictments accuse Dreckmann, during the same time period, of administering melatonin to the children without parental permission and without knowing the affects the unregulated dosages may have on them.
The falsifying physical evidence indictments allege Dreckmann, believing the New Hampshire Licensing Board was about to be begin an investigation, destroyed or concealed paperwork kept in connection with her daycare operation.
Dreckmann was operating an illegal day care center in her home, tending to 15 to 25 children daily, according to court records.
The children, employees told an investigator, would nap for two to three hours after eating, giving the workers a break.
Melatonin is a hormone made in the brain that helps regulate the body’s sleep cycle. It also is sold over-the-counter as a supplement.
According to Detective Jason Feliciano’s affidavit, police opened an investigation on Nov. 10, 2023, after receiving a call from a former employee. Her name is blacked out in the documents obtained by Manchester Ink Link after filing a Right-to-Know request with police.
That woman told police she was employed at an unlicensed in-home daycare operated by Dreckmann. The woman said her three children, at the time all under the age of four, attended the daycare for about three months.
The woman, who was employed there for two weeks, told police she saw Dreckmann spanking children and putting “seasoning” on chicken nuggets. When she went to eat one of them, Innie told her not to eat it because there was melatonin on it. The employee also told Feliciano that she saw Dreckmann force feed a hotdog to a 2-year-old child who had coughed and choked because she held his mouth shut.
Feliciano later spoke to that child’s mother who said her child is allergic to everything and that he had never eaten a hotdog and wouldn’t eat one.
The employee, after learning about the melatonin on the children’s food, immediately quit, took her children with her and called police. She also notified the state Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and posted a photo of the chicken nuggets with the melatonin on them on Facebook.
Feliciano said most of the parents he interviewed were aware of the Facebook post and “most if not all of the parents pulled their children from Sally’s daycare.” All said they were unaware that melatonin was given to their children and said they would not have given their consent if they were told about it.