LACED DRUG SUSPECTED IN 2 DEATHS

Police Worry Tainted Heroin Remains In Upper Dauphin

In the last two weeks in northern Dauphin County, four people
apparently overdosed on what might have been tainted heroin, with two
of them dying, police said.

One dealer bought 20 bags of heroin in Reading on Wednesday and sold
it to users in the Lykens and Wiconisco area, police said.

On Thursday, a 41-year-old Lykens man bought three packets of the
drug, snorted some of it, and died of an overdose minutes later,
police said. Fourteen packets are unaccounted for, raising the
possibility there could be more overdoses and deaths in the upper
Dauphin area, police said.

"We believe it's probably laced with something," said Lykens police
Chief Chris W.R. Wade. "This man who died was actually an experienced
drug user. It wasn't that he was new to the industry and didn't know
what he was doing."

Police said they believe the drug was heroin mixed with the
anesthetic fentanyl. They'll know when they receive lab reports.

The heroin-fentanyl combination has killed at least 100 people from
Philadelphia to Chicago in recent months. In the Harrisburg area, two
people died and 20 others overdosed on the drugs in April, authorities said.

Two weeks ago, U.S. and Mexican authorities closed a Mexican lab that
might have been the main source of fentanyl. Investigators said they
feared millions of packets of fentanyl-laced heroin might still be on
U.S. streets.

In Williamstown, a girl in her teens and a man in his 20s overdosed,
in the last two weeks, Wade said. Medics saved them. Some weren't that lucky:

# A woman died June 6 in Gratz, possibly of an overdose, Wade said.
Blood samples have been sent to a lab to determine why she died, and
an autopsy was performed.

Wade said he couldn't comment on her death because state police are
investigating it.

Yesterday, neither state police at Lykens nor Dauphin County Coroner
Graham Hetrick were available for comment.

# Patrick J. Finneran, 41, was found dead about 2 p.m. Thursday on a
living-room sofa in John P. Nestor's home at 421 S. Second St.,
Lykens police said.

Finneran had gotten three packets of heroin from David Lee Welker
Sr., 47, of Pottsville Street, Wiconisco, police said. Finneran had
told Welker he would pay him later for the drugs, police said.

Welker bought 20 packets of heroin, including the three he sold to
Finneran, from a dealer in Reading on Wednesday, Wade said. Finneran
went to Nestor's house and started inhaling the drugs. Minutes later,
Finneran slumped over, fell asleep on the sofa and never woke up.

That afternoon, Welker was worried that Finneran might not pay him,
so he asked his brother, Kevin W. Welker, to help get his money from
Finneran, police said.

Kevin Welker, who lived with Finneran, called Nestor twice that
afternoon, and each time, Nestor said Finneran was asleep and he
couldn't wake him, police said.

The brothers went to Nestor's house and found Finneran's body cold,
police said.

Kevin Welker tried to revive Finneran, but when that failed, he
rummaged through the dead man's pockets and took $50 in cash and one
packet of heroin, police said.

"He's a very cold-hearted individual," Wade said. "And that's how he
ended up with the abuse of corpse" charge.

In Finneran's death, Nestor, 53, is charged with reckless
endangerment of another person, possession of a controlled substance,
abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Kevin Welker, 43, is charged with robbery, theft by unlawful taking,
receiving stolen property, tampering or fabricating physical evidence
and abuse of a corpse.

David Lee Welker Sr., 47, is charged with reckless endangerment of
another person, possession of a controlled substance, possession with
intent to deliver a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Wade said all three are cooperating with police. Bail will be set
when they appear for preliminary arraignment before District Judge
Rebecca Margerum.

Claudia Maffei, the Lykens Borough Council president, doesn't want
people to think Lykens is a drug-infested town.

"Because it is a small town, you hear from people, 'Lykens has a lot
of drugs,'" Maffei said. "Well, every community has a lot of drugs.
Since we hired our chief and two other officers and with
regionalization, we've done a lot of cleaning of drugs."

Wade said of the drug problem, "We have been able to make an impact
on it, although we still have it."