Burlington police investigate overdose deaths

Burlington police are investigating two recent deaths due to apparent drug overdoses, including that of a 28-year-old man on Luck Street on Thursday morning, the agency said in a news release.

The police department issued information about the recent events Thursday afternoon to draw further attention to the "dangers of opiate addiction present in a community in many ways," police stated.

Rup Paudel died at the Luck Street apartment shortly after 7:30 a.m. when attempts by police and rescue personnel to revive him were unsuccessful, police said. Responding police officers administered naloxone, a substance that reverses the effects of opiates in emergency situations.

Investigation showed that Paudel had ingested heroin before he was found unresponsive. Police said it appears the man ingested a single dosage amount, and it does not appear to have been an intentional overdose.

Evidence of heroin use was found at the scene, but any heroin ingested was gone, police said. Investigators are awaiting toxicology results from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to determine the substance or substances present in Paudel's system at the time of his death. Toxicology results could take up to eight weeks, and Paudel's cause and manner of death will be determined when the results return, police said.

The Luck Street apartment where the man died has been a source of drug activity and the focus of recent investigations, police said. Police also found a quantity of crack cocaine and several thousand dollars in a common area of the apartment and seized those items. The source of the drugs and the suspected proceeds of cocaine sales seized is the focus of a parallel investigation, police said.

Investigators are also awaiting toxicology results in another recent apparent overdose death. Leslie Johnson, 50, was found dead in her North Street apartment on March 22 of an apparent overdose. Evidence at the scene showed that Johnson may have been using heroin in the moments leading up to her death, but investigators are waiting on toxicology to try to confirm the presence of heroin in Johnson's system.

In addition to the two deaths, Burlington police and University of Vermont Rescue helped revive a 25-year-old woman on April 8 who was suffering from a heroin overdose. Police administered two doses of naloxone, which began to reverse the overdose symptoms. When rescue personnel arrived, they assumed treatment of the woman and transported her to the University of Vermont Medical Center. The woman made a full recovery, police said.

Mayor Miro Weinberger expressed his condolences to the friends and family members of the recent overdose victims in a statement Thursday.

“The tragic news of the City’s second apparent heroin fatality in three weeks, in addition to a recent naloxone reversal by the Burlington Police Department, is further evidence of both the opiate challenge we face in our community and the urgent need to continue to expand our response," Weinberger said.  "I thank the City Council for their approval on Monday of the CommunityStat municipal effort to coordinate a regional approach to this terrible crisis and the many people who have contributed to the recent reductions of the Chittenden Country treatment waiting list and other newly-instituted strategies. ...These losses should strengthen the resolve of everyone involved in this fight to do even more to avoid future tragedies.”

Police used the Thursday news release as a reminder that heroin, lethal by itself, could be cut with other substances such as fentanyl. Vermont State Police have said fentanyl is an opioid drug that is up to 50 times more powerful than heroin, and much deadlier. Investigators have not determined the exact composition of the heroin ingested, police said.

Lt. Shawn Burke said there is no identified connection among the cases, other than they all involve apparent drug overdoses.

Police urge those with information related to this investigation to call Detective Cpl. Ric Volp at 540-2277. Those with information related to opiate distribution can call the Burlington Police Department's drug tip line at 540-2420.