FENTANYL/HEROIN MIX POSSIBLE IN MAN'S DEATH

Coroner: Body Found Near Railroad Tracks Had Been There For Days

LANCASTER, PA - Toxicology results should reveal the cause of death
of a man whose body was found Monday night, investigators said.

The man, whose name had yet to be released Tuesday, was found dead
around 9 p.m. in a ravine near railroad tracks and a stockyard.

Lancaster County Coroner Dr. G. Gary Kirchner said the man had been
dead for at least a couple of days and his body was decomposed.

Based on the results of Tuesday's autopsy, Kirchner said, there was
no evidence of trauma or any indication the man was struck by a train.

Although no drug paraphernalia was found near the body, investigators
suspect the man died of a drug overdose.

"The toxicology (results) will show if he got a batch of that hot
stuff with the fentanyl," Kirchner said of the test results, which
are expected within two weeks.

City police said the potentially fatal mixture of fentanyl -- an
extremely potent painkiller -- and heroin already caused one death
and was responsible for at least a dozen overdoses in Lancaster
within the past week and a half.

On Sept. 11, a woman in her 30s was found dead in a vacant apartment
in the 300 block of South Queen Street. Investigators said the empty
apartment was a popular hangout for drug users, and the woman's death
resulted from a heroin overdose.

More than 500 people nationawide have died from fentanyl overdoses
since April 2005, according to the latest information from the Office
of National Drug Control Policy. The majority of the deaths occurred
in Chicago; Detroit; Camden, N.J.; and Philadelphia.

Kirchner said the man found Monday night was "not young."

A police spokesman said Tuesday night authorities were having trouble
locating the victim's family for notification.