WILMINGTON SEES RASH OF HEROIN OVERDOSES

At about 8:30 on Easter morning, Joe Hagerty went to the basement of
his Prices Corner home to wake his youngest son, Ryan, for church.
Instead, he found his son dead on the floor from an apparent overdose.

Sgt. Kelli Starr-Leach, spokeswoman for New Castle County paramedics
said Ryan was pronounced dead at the home after they tried
unsuccessfully to revive him.

The following day, Hagerty went into his son's bedroom and looked around.

On his son's bed he found an empty packet stamped "Most Wanted."

In the cross beams of the ceiling were three full packets stamped
with the same logo. Inside the packets was what appeared to be heroin.

"He fought his addiction for six years and it finally won," Hagerty
said about his 25-year-old son. "If it wasn't Easter morning, it
would have been another time."

Though an autopsy report has not yet been released in the case, empty
packets of heroin stamped "Most Wanted" have been found at three of
five reported overdose scenes since March 25. The empty packets in
Ryan Hagerty's room are being tested by the state Medical Examiners office.

It is not known how long it will take to get the results back, said
Jay Lynch, spokesman for the state Department of Health and social
services. He said "toxicology tests take a while."

Wilmington police are unsure if four non-fatal heroin overdoses in
the city between March 25 and April 10, were caused by a heroin and
fentanyl -- a powerful pain killer -- mixture.

Around the same time last year, heroin cut with fentanyl was
responsible for more than 30 overdoses -- some fatal. Police are
suspicious now -- particularly considering two of the cases involved
packets labeled "Most Wanted."

On March 25, Starr-Leach said a woman suffering from a heroin
overdose was driven to the Minquas Fire Company in Newport by a
friend. Paramedics took the breathless 30-year-old woman to
Christiana Hospital, where she was revived. She said the woman
admitted to buying the heroin in Wilmington.

On April 6, a 34-year-old man was found unconscious in the 2100 block
of of Washington St. at 11:30 a.m., Master Sgt. Steven Elliott,
spokesman for Wilmington police, Elliott said. After a vehicle crash
in the area of Eighth and Tatnall streets, police found a 51-year-old
man behind the wheel, unconscious, apparently, from a heroin
overdose, Elliott said.

Inside the car, Elliott said, packaging marked "Most Wanted" was found.

A third man also was found unconscious on April 10 at 4:17 p.m.
inside an apartment in the first block of Rockford Road, police said.
A neighbor called rescuers to report an overdose.

Cpl. Trinidad Navarro, spokesman for the New Castle County police,
said there are "heroin overdoses all the time" in the county.

"Unfortunately," he added, "they're not uncommon."

Hagerty said his son had recently gotten out of a drug rehabilitation
program in Florida and seemed to be getting better.

"The only thing holding us together is knowing that he won't suffer
anymore," Hagerty said.