100 Bags of Fentanyl Located in Dead Connecticut Boy’s Bedroom, Police Say

Police say they discovered roughly 100 bags of fentanyl in the bedroom of a 13-year-old Connecticut boy who recently died after overdosing on the drug at school.

In a release on Tuesday, Hartford police said the bags located at the unidentified 13-year-old’s home were packaged similarly to the 40 bags found at Hartford’s Sport and Medical Sciences Academy after his overdose, the Associated Press reported. Hartford police noted the bags had been marked with the same identifying stamp.

“We can confidently say that the fentanyl that caused the overdose was the same fentanyl that was located in the juvenile’s bedroom,” said Hartford police. “At this time, we have found no evidence that anyone other than the deceased juvenile brought the fentanyl to school.”

The 13-year-old overdosed at the school on January 13, and on January 15, he succumbed to his injuries and died, according to WVIT.

“Officials determined the teenager had ingested the drug in one classroom and went to the gym where he fell ill and collapsed,” WTIC reported.

Two of his classmates apparently came in contact with the fentanyl and became ill. They have since recovered.

Hartford Police Lt. Aaron Boisvert said authorities searched the school following the overdose and recovered some 40 bags of fentanyl in the gymnasium and two classrooms, per WVIT.

“It’s poison,” Boisvert said.

Authorities “have identified a person of interest, police said. No arrests have been made,” according to the Associated Press.

A person who lives at the deceased 13-year-old’s residence has a history of substance abuse and is a “person of interest,” said Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, citing Hartford police, in a January 28 update.

“The student’s mother has been fully cooperative,” Torres-Rodriguez wrote. “At this time, there is no evidence she had prior knowledge of the student’s possession of the fentanyl.”

Per WVIT, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin spoke of child’s death in the days after his passing:

Our city grieves for this child lost, for his loved ones, his friends, his teachers, and the entire SMSA family. We still have much to learn about the circumstances of this tragedy, and about how a child had access to such a shocking quantity of such deadly drugs, and our police department will continue their investigation and seek to hold accountable the adults who ultimately are responsible for this child’s death. 

The death of the 13-year-old has invigorated “calls for schools to stock the opioid antidote naloxone, as well as for training on how to recognize and respond to overdoses,” according to the Associated Press.