HEROIN GIVEN HOURS BEFORE DEATH

A roommate injected heroin into a 20-year-old woman just hours before she
was found dead in her apartment Tuesday morning near UW-Madison, court
records allege.

Dane County Deputy Coroner Jeff Scholts said toxicology tests that would
determine Sarah M. Stellner's cause of death could take up to two months to
complete. He would not speculate on whether heroin caused her death, except
to say that she didn't suffer any traumatic injury.

A search warrant filed Wednesday in Dane County District Court indicates
that after confirming Stellner was dead, Madison police investigators found
drug paraphernalia in her apartment at 211 Langdon St.

The warrant also indicates Stellner's roommate Morgan Fenick, 17,
originally from Soldiers Grove, told police that she injected her friend
with heroin early Tuesday. She also used the drug early Tuesday and had
done so before, she told police.

Fenick could not be reached for comment.

Madison Police Detective Sid Woods said he found several items associated
with drug use in the apartment, including used and unused syringes,
blackened spoons, ampoules of saline solution, a Latex tourniquet, a
marijuana leaf, postal scales and a marijuana pipe.

Several cigarette butts were collected and the search warrant indicated DNA
tests might be conducted to determine who was in the apartment with
Stellner before she died.

No one has been arrested for Stellner's death.

Stellner grew up in Gays Mills. She worked at Cookies by Design on Mineral
Point Road where she was considered a hard-working and reliable employee.
She did not appear to have a lot of money, owner Ann Kratofil said.

Stellner's father, Duane Stellner, said Tuesday that his daughter was not
the type to do drugs - she was a good student who had graduated early from
North Crawford High School in Soldiers Grove.

He feared alcohol may have been behind her death. Stellner had three
underage drinking convictions in the past three years and had been out the
night before her death.

Whatever the cause of his daughter's death, her father said, the family
wants to know the truth.