WHIPPANY PARK GRAD DEAD OF APPARENT OD

A 2006 Whippany Park High School graduate was found dead of an
apparent heroin overdose in the basement apartment of a Tremont Drive home.

Eric K. Roppenecker, 18, had lived in Hanover previously and had
moved to the basement of 3 Tremont Drive about three months ago, police said.

"The investigation to this point reveals a probable drug overdose,"
Detective Lt. Brian Monaghan said today.

A female friend of Roppenecker -- who worked with him at a title
agency in the area, which police did not name -- was worried when
Roppenecker did not show up for work yesterday. She called police and
told them where he lived.

Evidence at the scene, syringes and other paraphernalia, indicated
that had injected heroin. A toxicology report is pending from Morris
County authorities.

Police do not yet know if the lethal combination of fetanyl and
heroin was used in this instance.

An immediate worry for East Hanover police was that Roppenecker's
friends or acquaintances also may have obtained the same type of
heroin. Illicit drugs, including heroin, have claimed more than 30
people in Morris County so far this year.

"We were concerned based on the recent heroin deaths in the area,"
Monaghan said, "We were frantically trying to find anyone who was
with him, and of his friends, who may have had or used the same batch
of narcotics. To save another life, we let them know he died."

If an autopsy shows Roppenecker's death was the related to heroin, he
would be the third Whippany Park High School graduate to have died
this year from a heroin overdose.

Police did not have information prior to yesterday about Roppenecker
or alleged drug use. He was a new resident of East Hanover and police
do not believe he was one of approximately 60 area teenagers,
adolescents and other young people arrested during Operation Painkiller.