Coroner IDs 3 who died of suspected overdoses at same time in same Erie apartment

Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook has investigated hundreds of deaths during the opioid crisis, but he said this case was a first: Three people dying at the same time in the same apartment on Saturday at East Avenue and East 10th Street in Erie.

The number and circumstances of the deaths made the case unique in Erie County.

"I don't recall one like this," said Cook, who was first elected coroner 23 years ago and who worked in the Coroner's Office for another 18 years before then.

Cook said he suspects the toxicology test results that will be available in about six weeks will confirm initial indications that all three deaths were drug-related. He said the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is likely to blame.

Cook on Wednesday said about "90% of our drug deaths are due to fentanyl," so the involvement of fentanyl in the deaths of the three "would be a reasonable theory."

The Erie police and the Erie County District Attorney's Office are investigating the circumstances of the deaths as they look into the possibility of filing charges related to a drug delivery involving a death.

"We are working together with the police on this investigation," District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said on Wednesday.

Whether the fentanyl or other drugs were laced with other substances will be part of the drug analysis, Cook said. Erie police and other agencies warned of bad or highly potent batch of drugs circulating in the area earlier this year.

"We test for 1,100 drugs and chemicals," Cook said. "If there was a substance in their systems, we will be aware of it."

One victim owned building where he, 2 others died

Erie police found the three victims at about 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in the rear apartment at 1032 East Ave. Cook said a relative of one of the victims had gone to the apartment and called the authorities upon finding the three. All three were pronounced dead at the scene, Cook said.

Cook on Wednesday identified the three as Scott J. Pohl, 59; Teresa "Terri" Goodard Metzger, 54; and Korquoja Henderson, 33.

The three victims were found collapsed on one another in the kitchen of the apartment, Cook said.

"It would appear that they all died at the same time," he said.

Pohl owned the apartment building, according to Erie County county property records, though Cook said Pohl's address was listed as a property in Greene Township. Pohl also owned that property, according to the county records.

Cook said Metzger and Henderson were not living at 1032 East Ave. Metzger was from Wesleyville and Henderson was living elsewhere on Erie's east side, Cook said.

The Erie police are continuing to investigate the deaths as drug-related, Erie police Deputy Chief Rick Lorah said. Hirz said her office has been in contact with the police on the deaths.

Over the past several years, Erie County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Erie police and other law enforcement agencies have investigated and prosecuted a number of defendants on charges that they supplied the drugs that led to overdose deaths.

In cases prosecuted on the local level, four people have been charged in Erie County in 2023 with supplying drugs that led to someone's death. On the federal level, a grand jury in Erie in May indicted another person on federal charges that he supplied drugs that led to a death.

That defendant is one of four people to be prosecuted in U.S. District Court in Erie on drug charges related to a death. The deaths in the federal cases date to 2017.

Latest case similar to overdose deaths in van in Erie in April

The deaths of the three people on East Avenue came three months after the Coroner's Office and Erie police investigated the overdose deaths of two people found in a van in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket at West 38th and Liberty streets.

The victims —  Amanda Bowen, 31, and Charles Wolf, 35 — were found in the van on April 4. The Coroner's Office ruled both deaths accidental due to acute fentanyl toxicity, according to the coroner's reports. No one has been charged in that case. A 39-year-old woman who was also in the van survived after she got a dose of the overdose-reversal medication Narcan at the scene, police said.

As of Wednesday, 59 people in Erie County had died of drug overdoses in 2023, Cook said. He said his office is waiting on toxicology tests before making final rulings on another 25 cases in which drug overdoses are the suspected cause of death — with fentanyl believed to the primary lethal drug.

The Erie County Coroner's Office first listed fentanyl as a factor in drug deaths in its annual reports in 2016. Fentanyl is contributing to more of the deaths.

Initial report: Erie police, coroner investigating after 2 men, woman found dead in East Avenue residence

The number of fatal drug overdoses in Erie County climbed to a near-record level in 2022, with 122 people dying of lethal drug toxicity, Cook said in releasing his office's annual statistics in May. Erie County saw a record 124 drug deaths in 2017. Drug deaths dropped to 76 in 2019, but have grown steadily since then, according to the Coroner's Office.

Fighting a scourge: Erie County DA educates law enforcement, others about new drug treatment initiative

Fentanyl was a factor in 80% of Erie County's drug deaths in 2021, according to the Coroner's Office. The percentage rose to 84% in 2022. As of Wednesday, based on Cook's figures, that percentage could be even higher by the end of 2023.

Contact Ed Palattella at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Suspected overdose victims ID'd after 3 found dead in Erie apartment