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Sullivan County coroner reports rise in overdose deaths, identifies parafluorofentanyl and a homicide case
Summary
Sullivan County Coroner Albie Calvi reported a rise in overdose-related deaths and a confirmed case involving parafluorofentanyl, and said skeletal remains found this month were identified as a 2018 missing person and classified as a homicide.
Sullivan County Coroner Albie Calvi reported a rise in overdose-related deaths and a confirmed case involving parafluorofentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, and informed the Public Safety Committee that skeletal remains discovered this month were identified as a 2018 missing person and have been classified as a homicide.
Calvi told the committee that the county received a DEA notification about parafluorofentanyl — sometimes called "China white" in the transcript — and said toxicology confirmed one recent local autopsy included that compound. "They're using this type of synthetic fentanyl and mixing it with straight fentanyl, making it 50 times more potent than fentanyl itself," Calvi said, describing the heightened risk.
Calvi provided monthly counts for March: 26 calls that came through the 911 center and 13 postmortem examinations. He said the county is now breaking death statistics down by type at the coroner's office in cooperation with a local overdose-death task group: in March, Calvi reported three natural deaths, three suicides, three accidental deaths, one homicide and three overdoses.
The coroner also said the county found two sets of skeletal remains in the month; one of those has been positively identified as a person missing since 2018 and is being treated as a homicide. Calvi said he and county staff are meeting with hospital and purchasing officials to examine options for a long-term fix to the hospital morgue cooling system; a meeting on that topic was scheduled with the hospital CEO and county staff.
Why it matters: confirmation of parafluorofentanyl and an uptick in overdose cases have implications for public health and law enforcement response across the county, while the identified homicide requires further investigation and interagency coordination.
Calvi said the county formed a new overdose-death review group and that the expanded statistics are intended to help the group determine links between overdose deaths and suicides and to guide prevention and investigative work.
