UNION COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A new approach in the fight against fentanyl is gaining momentum as the Union County Sheriff’s Office opens a new autopsy center.
Detectives say the facility, and its expansion in the future, will save lives.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office says delays in bloodwork reports for deadly drug overdose cases are not acceptable, so they decided to do something about it, and victims’ families say it’s time.
Stephanie Triplett was married to her best friend.
“Chris was the life of the party. He was sarcastic. He was so funny,” said Stephanie. “He was a Chiefs fan, which was a downside,” she said while laughing.
Just weeks away from their anniversary, Stephanie will be celebrating it alone.
“I will never meet another person like him,” said an emotional Stephanie.
Chris Triplett died from fentanyl poisoning just over a year ago.
Stephanie says she begged for a death investigation to find out who was dealing the drugs, but police didn’t do one. Even though she says two other people, including Chris’ sister died after him at the same house.
“If an investigation was actually opened and an investigation was done, those lives would have been saved,” said Stephanie.
North Carolina passed a death-by-distribution law in 2019.
“Not every county is as aggressively prosecuting those type crimes. We are,” said Tony Underwood, Chief Deputy of Operations at the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office just opened a new autopsy center. For now, it’s located at Atrium Health Union Hospital in Monroe, but there are plans to expand.
“One of the biggest needs that was a driving force behind this was the increase in fatal drug overdoses,” said Underwood.
Years ago, the county sent bodies to Charlotte for autopsies but more recently because of short staffing and more demand, Union County had to send corpses to Raleigh. There they also do toxicology testing to find out what’s in the blood. That’s essential evidence in drug overdose deaths.
But those results can take months or even a year to come back. The longer the sheriff’s office waits, the longer it takes to build a case and make an arrest.
“This person’s a drug dealer. Drug dealers don’t stop doing what they do until they go to jail,” said Underwood.
To speed up that wait time, the sheriff’s office is working to open a nine-county regional autopsy center.
“We test the blood of living people. Okay, but to do it in a person who has passed away, it’s a little bit different processes,” said Underwood.
They say they have the instruments and equipment to do bloodwork on corpses right now, but they need more staff training and accreditation before they can put it in place.
“I have a very strong opinion about fentanyl. I think it’s murder. I don’t think it’s an accident that’s listed on their death certificate. I think it’s murder,” said Stephanie Triplett.
The sheriff’s office says the way to stop the suffering of people like Stephanie is to stop the dealers, and fast.
The state legislature has approved around $20 million in capital costs and about $4 million in operating costs for the Union County Sheriff’s Office to open the South Piedmont Regional Autopsy Center.
But there’s still a long way to go in planning, designing and then building the facility, which will be years down the road.
