TEXAS (NBC) Texas police are investigating a video posted on the internet that appears to show a two-year-old girl high on ecstasy. The video sparked a firestorm of criticism after surfacing last week. Investigators believe the video was shot in the Houston area based on visual clues and the stations playing on a car's radio in the clip.
The toddler can be seen sitting on the floor of a moving car carrying four teenage girls.
Her eyes roll back in her head several times as the girls laugh about giving her ecstasy.
At one point one of the girls praises her for "taking the hit like a soldier".
One of the teenagers has been identified through her MySpace page. She claims the video was all an act, and that the child was never given drugs.
Police and social workers say they're still looking for the toddler and the other three girls shown in the video.
HOUSTON -- All of the people in a video that shows a group of young women laughing at a toddler rolling her eyes and behaving strangely have been interviewed and officials said they believe the tape was a hoax, Houston television station KPRC reported.
The video, which runs 2 minutes and 28 seconds, shows the little girl, who appears about 2 years old, sitting on the floor of a van. As the young women in the car, some of whom seem to be teenagers, tease her, the toddler rolls her eyes back until only the whites are showing.
Some of the women can be heard laughing and seeming to suggest the drug Ecstasy might be responsible for the tot's behavior.
"Cookie, stop rolling, girl ...You shouldn't have popped no x," said one of the young women, as she squeezes the little girl's cheeks and taps her on her head, telling her to stop rolling her eyes.
The video, which originally appeared on YouTube and is also on the Web sites Digg and Parents Behaving Badly, also shows an infant being handed from one person to another in the car's back seat. The video has since been removed from YouTube.
Authorities with the Harris County Sheriff's Department and the Cyber Crimes Task Force talked to all of the people involved in the video and they said it was a joke, including the girl's 21-year-old mother.
However, the toddler will undergo medical tests for confirmation.
"At this time, there's not enough evidence to say with any kind of certainty that she was or she was not actually exposed to any kind of criminal or illicit substance," said Lt. John Martin with the Harris County Sheriff's Department.
According to Martin, the group was on a long road trip from South Padre Island to Houston and said it was a product of boredom.
"That this child would basically do whatever you told her to do. If you told her to roll her eyes, she would roll her eyes, and they claim that's what she was doing -- that she was responding to things that they were telling her to do," Martin said.
Nine people were inside the van -- three adults, four teenagers and two children. KPRC spoke with them as they left the Cyber Crimes Task Force after being interviewed. No one was willing to talk with the station about what really happened.
Child Protective Services is investigating the child's home life.
Harris County and Jackson County authorities became involved after several clues in the video seemed to show that the video had been filmed in the southeast Texas area. A map of Jackson County can be seen in the pocket of the car's front seat. An announcer from KHCB-FM, a Houston Christian radio station, and an instrumental version of Jesus Loves Me can be heard in the background.
The Jackson County sheriff is still concerned by what he saw.
"She's on the floor of the van -- no child protective seat there. Her environment is certainly in question," Sheriff A.J. Louderback said.
Investigators said even though the video recently came to light, it was shot on June 17.
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