FATAL DRUG OVERDOSES ON RISE IN PALM BEACH COUNTY, DETECTIVE SAYS

Fatal overdose cases are becoming more common each year in Palm Beach
County, but finding enough specialized detectives to work them can be
a challenge, a veteran Palm Beach County investigator said on Tuesday.

Instead of unraveling complex crime scenes, violence crime detectives
are often left in overdose cases without clear motives but plenty of
family members seeking answers, Sheriff's Detective Gary Martin told
a conference in Boca Raton.

"These cases aren't gratifying to work," said Martin, also a
psychotherapist and associate dean for student wellness at Lynn
University in Boca Raton.

There were 220 fatal overdoses in Palm Beach County last year,
meaning detectives were more likely to work an overdose than most
other types of investigations, Martin said.

Martin, who became the county's only full-time overdose investigator
in August, explained to fellow detectives at the start of the
three-day second-annual Homicide Conference that many law enforcement
agencies don't assign enough detectives to work on fatal overdoses,
which some years have added up to as many cases as fatal car crashes.

Fatal drug overdoses have increased dramatically in Florida and
across the country, largely because of prescription drug abuses,
experts said. The nation's leading drug problem behind marijuana
abuse is misuse of prescription drugs, Martin said, citing a recent
federal study.

Locally, Florida Atlantic University student Nicole Phillips, 18, and
her boyfriend, Richard Cardinale, 19, are thought to have overdosed
on Nov. 19 when they were found dead in her dormitory suite. The
university has not said what drugs they supposedly used, but their
friends said Cardinale told them a day earlier that he was taking
Xanax, powdered morphine and alcohol.

Police work overdoses until they determine the death was accidental
or a crime. If it was a crime, detectives look for a motive and suspects.

To reduce overdose deaths, Florida needs to establish an amnesty law
for people who witness drug deaths and later cooperate with
investigators, Martin said.

Hospitals or police also need to provide more assistance to overdose
survivors because statistically most of those people will overdose
again and likely die, he said.

"If we can get to those people, we can help," he said.

The Sheriff's Office assigned Martin to work on overdose deaths in
the agency's jurisdiction and study trends on similar deaths
countywide so he could use his expertise to close out cases faster
and help families deal with the trauma of losing relatives, Capt.
Jack Strenges said. Martin will also train detectives in other local
agencies, he said.

Martin outlined the overdose death issue to about 100 investigators
from 40 agencies attending the conference sponsored by the Sheriff's
Office. The investigators are spending the week learning the latest
DNA technology, crime scene and offender profiling and cold case reviews.