The Peoria County Coroner is offering a message of concern. Jamie Harwood says the man found deceased in Peoria Heights Tuesday was the third person in the Peoria area to die from apparent drug overdoses in the last two weeks.
The man, who was in his 40’s, was found yesterday morning in the back of a van that belonged to the resident of the home in the 3000 block of Farber, where it was parked.
The first death, of a woman in her 30’s, was on May 14th. She was found in her home in the 3000 block of North Knoxville. The other person was a man in his thirties also found in his home on May 21st. He lived in the 1300 block of South Blaine.
The coroner says all three cases had positive drug screens in preliminary autopsy findings, but they are not related.
Harwood says the concern is the increase in drug deaths in such a short period of time in Peoria. He says he hasn’t seen a series of drug overdose this close together in about two years.