COPS SEEK SOURCES OF HEROIN

Newburgh - Bethann Cherry collapsed just inside the Newburgh Ministry
homeless center. She was dead before an ambulance got her to St.
Luke's up the street. It was three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, and
she was 37.

Kids found William Gondolfo, 53, stretched out in a dirty alley on
Dubois Street on July 8. He was two blocks from the emergency room
and had been dead for a while.

Both died after using a powerful batch of heroin now making its
rounds in Newburgh, police believe.

"It's out there, and what we're trying to do is identify the source
and stem the flow," said Lt. Santo Centamore. "Heroin is definitely back."

A third suspected fatal heroin overdose in May might or might not be
related, Centamore said.

Like cocaine, the powdered heroin available in Newburgh is often
diluted or cut with other chemicals by dealers, to stretch the
supply. Police are investigating whether this particularly intense
batch of heroin might be cut with a powerful painkiller.

Dealers also often mark bags of heroin with a word or logo so that
users can return for the brand they prefer. Detectives think the
heroin that allegedly felled Gondolfo and Cherry might be marked with
a simple stamp: the outline of a witch.

"It's a little unclear, but that's what it looks like," said Centamore.

Detectives now have the daunting task of convincing drug users and
suspected dealers to put aside their usual reluctance to tell them
where the city's heroin is coming from - for their own safety.

Yesterday morning, detectives raided a rooming house at 165 Broadway on a tip.

There, on the second floor, they say they recovered 21 bags of heroin
and arrested two people - although the bags of heroin bore no brand marking.

Arrested was 53-year-old Michael "Mint" Armstrong, who was charged
with possession and felony attempting to sell a controlled substance;
and Michelle Toth, 25, charged with possession of narcotics.

"We're relying on a lot of street information here," Centamore said.
"And there's a lot of different sellers."

Both Cherry, who had a history of drug and prostitution arrests, and
Gondolfo, whose arrest history runs more than 30 years, had been
struggling to beat addiction as of late, police say.

Centamore said police believe Cherry had only recently been released
from a rehabilitation program. Gondolfo, too, had been cleaning up
recently, he said.