MANCHESTER, NH – Sally Dreckmann, accused of lacing children’s food and infant formula with melatonin so they would sleep, 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 Boston Children’s Hospital physicians Dr. Judith Owens, co-director of the Sleep Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Michael Toce in the Division of Emergency Medicine, who specializes in toxicology, melatonin may be beneficial for some children who have difficulty falling asleep, when the supplement is accompanied by a behavioral program to address the sleep problems.

They say it is probably safe when used appropriately, at the correct dose for age, and in consultation with a health care provider.

In general, they said melatonin should not be given to healthy, typically developing children under age 3, as difficulties falling and staying asleep in these children are almost always behavioral in nature. Furthermore, children younger than age 5 are much more likely to accidentally ingest melatonin, especially in “child-friendly” forms like gummies.

Dreckmann, 51, of 315 Amory St., is charged with 10 counts of endangering the welfare of a child.  Employees Traci Innie, 51, who is Dreckmann’s cousin, Kaitlin Filardo, 23, and Jessica Foster, 23, all of Manchester, are facing the same offenses.

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.

The parents said they noticed a change in their children’s sleep cycle patterns after they were at Dreckmann’s.  Some said their children would not go to bed at their scheduled time and be up until 2-3 a.m. while others said their children would go to sleep hours after their scheduled bed time.

Some of the parents also said their children were done with napping and did not nap anymore, but whil in Dreckmann’s care their child would always be napping, which they found odd.

“It wasn’t until the Facebook.com post came out did parents realize that the change in their child’s behavior and sleep cycle might have been contributed to the melatonin,” Feliciano wrote.  

Some of the parents spoke with Dreckmann who told them the suspected melatonin was flour.  One parent told Dreckmann she was taking her child to be tested but never said it was for melatonin.  Dreckmann, Feliciano wrote, told the mother her child would test positive for melatonin because it is naturally present in the body.

Feliciano contacted Olya Mahoney of the New Hampshire Child Care Licensing Unit who, he wrote, was aware of Dreckmann’s alleged illegal daycare and that Melatonin was being placed on food given to the children.  Mahoney said she met with Dreckmann at her residence and asked for permission to enter to verify the allegations of an illegal daycare.  Dreckmann would not give her permission to enter.

Mahony later returned with a cease-and-desist letter for Dreckmann advising her to close the illegal daycare.  During that time, Feliciano said he received the DCYF Law Enforcement Notification (LEN) about Dreckmann’s alleged illegal daycare and the placement of Melatonin in the children’s food.

The investigation spanned three months and included Feliciano interviewing all those who worked at the Amory Street daycare in the past year, including Dreckmann, as well as seven parents of children attending the daycare.

Innie, when interviewed by Feliciano, initially said Dreckmann was not running a daycare business.  At the end of the interview, however, Feliciano said she confirmed Dreckmann was operating a daycare and told the detective that Dreckmann and all the employees were placing melatonin on the food given to the children so they would sleep and the workers would get a break.

Filardo was interviewed by other detectives.  She told them she did not know melatonin was being placed on the food.  She said Dreckmann and Innie prepared the food.  Filardo said she was told the white substance was seasoning.

Feliciano interviewed Foster who worked off-and-on for Dreckmann for about a year.  She said Dreckmann, Innie and Filardo put melatonin on the food and said it also was put into baby formula provided to the younger children.  Foster told Feliciano it “was common practice” to place melatonin on the food given to the children.  She said she only did it once.

Four other employees Feliciano interviewed, whose names were blacked out in the affidavit obtained by Manchester Ink Link, confirmed melatonin was placed on the food.  The employees said Dreckmann, Innie and Filardo were the ones who prepared the food with melatonin. 

Feliciano interviewed Dreckmann at her residence along with someone (the name is blacked out) from the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General.

She denied employing anyone and maintained she was running a babysitting service, not a daycare.  She said all the other employees were babysitting other children and everyone met at Dreckmann’s for play dates.

“Sally stated that she took in very little or no money from the children she cared for based on what the parents could pay,” Feliciano wrote.  Any money taken from babysitting, she said, was used to buy food, Pampers and other items for the children. 

 “Since all the employees I spoke with stated that they were paid by Sally for working, I found it odd that Sally stated that she never paid anyone,” Feliciano wrote.

Feliciano showed Dreckmann the Facebook post the former employee posted.

Dreckmann said she had a falling out with the woman which was why the post was made. She also said Innie was joking when she told the former employee that it was Melatonin on the chicken nuggets.  Dreckmann said her cooking pans are old and she uses flour and spray for a non-stick surface which was the reason why a white substance was on the food or on the cooking sheet.

Feliciano told her he spoke with Innie who said Dreckmann put melatonin on the food.  Dreckmann said she had done that with the permission of a mother.  She said the mom provided her with a pill bottle and pill crusher, and she would crush the pills and provide Melatonin to the woman’s two children.

Feliciano said he spoke with that mother who said she did give Dreckmann permission to give her children each a .5 mg of Melatonin before nap time.  She said she provided the Melatonin in a 1 mg pill broken in half and not in a crushed-up form or with a pill crusher.

Feliciano also told Dreckmann that Innie said Dreckmann put melatonin on all of the children’s food.  He asked Dreckmann if she did that. “I don’t want to answer that,” Dreckmann told the detective.

Dreckmann shredded all contact information for the children after the licensing board served her with the cease-and-desist letter, preventing the detective from gathering additional information on the children.

Dreckmann has an arraignment date of June 10 in 9th Circuit – District Division – Manchester.