The number of Evansville deaths blamed on heroin has likely doubled from last year’s total, and five months still remain in 2016.
The latest two happened in the same Evansville home earlier this week, authorities believe. The bodies of Christopher L. Alvey, 33, and Cory M. Keown, 34, were discovered by a family member in a home in the 700 block of Bennighof Avenue on Wednesday afternoon, according to an Evansville Police Department report. They were both pronounced dead at the scene.
The two deaths are likely the 12th and 13th fatal overdoses attributed to heroin in Vanderburgh County so far this year, according to Steve Lockyear, the county’s chief deputy coroner. Lockyear said the county has had nine confirmed heroin-related deaths this year. He also suspects the drug caused two other recent fatalities, though the official causes of those deaths have yet to be confirmed.
Last year, there were six fatal heroin overdoses in Vanderbugh County and two in neighboring Warrick County. For the first part of this decade, Southwestern Indiana largely was unaffected by the resurgence of heroin that had started to affect much of the country.
According to Wednesday’s report, there was a woman asleep inside the home — which is listed as Keown’s residence — when police arrived. Investigators wrote that they believe all three people were involved in the use of narcotics Tuesday night.
When asked if he was surprised by the number of deaths this year on Friday, Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nicholas Hermann said he feared that it is still just the start of the problem, referencing the high number of heroin deaths that other parts of Indiana have been dealing with for several years. Hermann’s office hosted a symposium on the effects of heroin use and prescription opioid abuse earlier this year. Lockyear was one of the speakers at that April event.
On Friday, Lockyear called the emerging local heroin problem “just terrible,” though he said several groups are already working toward solutions to curb heroin use.
“It’s going to take a full community effort to combat this,” he said. “It’s going to (have to) come from treatment to education to law enforcement. And everybody, I think, everyone, has been quickly on board with this ... it’s not something that is simply being ignored.”