Long Island mom drank booze in bathroom as baby choked to death on popcorn kernels: DA

A drug-addicted Long Island mom allegedly fed her 18-month old son unpopped popcorn kernels in a drunken stupor — then left him and his sister alone to drink in the bathroom while he choked to death. 

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Olivia Bithorn, 36, was slapped with manslaughter child endangerment charges in the heartbreaking April 19 death of little Luke Russell Jr., who cops found unresponsive and turning blue in his Merrick home near piles of kernels — just steps away from an empty bottle of Tito’s vodka in the bathroom, court records said.

The self-admitted drug addict and alcoholic mother allegedly left her son unattended with his 3-year-old sister, feeding them both unpopped popcorn kernels, which her son eventually choked on and died as Bithron was downing booze in the bathroom of her Merrick home, according to the records.

“When the police walked in that nightmare of a scene on April 12, 2026 — besides seeing 18 month old Luke Russell, Jr. laying in front of them, unresponsive, already turning blue from asphyxiation, surrounded by dozens of unpopped popcorn kernels, which would ultimately and unsurprisingly be the cause of his death when one became lodged in his throat,” prosecutors detailed. 

“[Police] also found a nearly empty bottle of Tito’s vodka in the bathroom, where the defendant had been drinking it while her children remained unsupervised in the living room,” prosecutors added. 

Bithorn broke down in tears in Nassau County court on Monday, when she was held on half a million dollars baiil. She had previously been confined to a drug and alcohol treatment facility with an ankle monitor last week, when she pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Photos from inside the home obtained by The Post show toys and kernels strewen around the living room with the empty vodka bottle lying next to the baby’s pacifier. 

The troubled mom originally told police she had made popcorn for her daughter and sat down to watch a movie — claiming some of it must have spilled on the floor unnoticed, officials said.

But prosecutors said Bithron left the children unattended for over an hour as she sucked down vodka — and they said she was so liquored up that she could barely stand by the time authorities arrived.

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Bithron allegedly told cops she had gotten stumbly drunk by popping the Tito’s in her freezer in the minutes after they arrived.

A subsequent search warrant after her son’s death found multiple empty liquor bottles in a trash bag outside the apartment, which she claimed was from days prior when she had company.

Prosecutors, though, said Bithorn has “what has proven to be an unmanageable substance abuse problem” — with a history of binge drinking episodes dating back years, including two that put her unborn children at risk.

In the summer of 2024, while pregnant with her now-deceased son, who would be born that October — Bithorn took her husband’s car with their 3-year-old daughter inside and went on a binge. 

She crashed the car in Astoria, Queens and was later found in a nearby Starbucks incomprehensible and covered in bruises, while her daughter was soaking wet, prosecutors said.

At the hospital, her husband was told by a doctor that based on Bithorn’s blood alcohol content, he could not guarantee Luke would suffer no lasting consequences from the crash, sources detailed. 

Bithorn also drank heavily while pregnant with her daughter in late 2022 and early 2023, sources claimed.

She was briefly reported missing last August, according to a missing persons flyer obtained by The Post.

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