MURDER CHARGES FILED IN DEATH FROM PAINKILLER-LACED HEROIN

CHICAGO -- The authorities charged a 35-year-old man Thursday with
homicide in the death of a police chief's son who died after taking
heroin spiked with the powerful painkiller Fentanyl.

The homicide charge was the first to stem from an investigation into
numerous deaths attributed in part to the drug.

A conviction could bring a sentence of up to 30 years for the suspect,
[name redacted], who was ordered held on $80,000 bond. [name redacted] was
described as having a history of drug arrests.

The authorities charge that the drug resulted in the death of
17-year-old Joseph Krecker in June. Mr. Krecker, the son of Deputy
Chief Jack Krecker of the suburban Franklin Park police, was found
slumped in his car not long after buying the heroin.

The drug was found to contain Fentanyl, an additive that has been
blamed for hundreds of deaths nationwide. Since April 2005, at least
185 Fentanyl-related deaths have been reported in Cook County, 145 of
them in Chicago.

"This is growing like wild," said the Cook County medical examiner,
Edmund Donoghue.

Police officials say that gangs and drug dealers have been so spooked
by the investigations by local and federal officials and by increased
patrols that they are often forcing buyers to use the drug inside the
apartments where it is sold, in front of them, to avoid detection.

Mr. Krecker apparently did the same, or took the heroin mix soon after
buying it, said the police, who said that he was found just blocks
from the West Side apartment where he is believed to have bought the
drugs.

"With this announcement comes the bittersweet reality that members of
our own family can be vulnerable to the evils of gangs, guns and
drugs," said Superintendent Philip J. Cline of the Chicago police.

Superintendent Cline said Chief Krecker's "tenacity and determination"
in leading investigators to his son's network of associates had helped
break case.

The announcement of the homicide charge came two months after hundreds
of local and federal officers raided homes in Chicago and elsewhere
and indicted nearly 50 people on drug conspiracy charges.