3 overdose deaths spark police investigation
LAWRENCE, Ind. (WISH) — Flowers line the sidewalk outside of a bar on North Post Road and balloons blow in the wind next to a sign that reads, “Pray For The Page.”
This sign sits outside Sports Page Lounge, a bar where two of the three overdoses happened on Thursday.
“We’ve owned this bar for 14 years. I’ve been a bartender here since 2003, and nothing of this nature has ever occurred around here,” owner of the Sports Page Lounge Dennis Luger said.
Luger tells I-team 8 he checked the bar’s security cameras early Thursday to find his 44-year-old bartender and a 60-year-old regular who was about to start working the door of the bar on Saturdays unresponsive.
“Both of them had infectious, great personalities,” said Luger.
The Marion County Coroner’s Office is doing toxicology tests to find out the exact substance that killed the two men.
On the same night the two men died, Lawrence Police told I-Team 8 that two miles away from the bar, they discovered two people unresponsive in a car at Lawrence Community Park. One of them was pronounced dead.
Police had tested a white powdery substance found in the vehicle and it tested positive for fentanyl.
Because the three deaths happened on the same night, Lawrence Police are investigating to find out if the overdoses are connected and track the source of a potentially bad batch of drugs.
Community activist Clif Marsiglio tells I-team 8 this tragedy could have been avoided. Marsiglio says he continually stocks opioid rescue kits filled with naloxone and drug test strips on the eastside.
“We give them fentanyl strips, so they can be aware of what they’re doing, and we give these [Naloxone] so that whenever they are doing them, their friends can revive them,” said Marsiglio.
The Sports Page Lounge told I-Team 8 they have given police all their surveillance video to help the investigation. “Hopefully we can find some answers,” said Luger.
If you have any information that can help Lawrence Police with this case, you can call them and leave an anonymous tip.