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THURSDAY
© Copyright 2016
February 4, 2016
Overdose deaths on the rise
Drug fatalities
a concern nationwide
BY PHIL RAY
pray@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair
County had a sharp rise in drug
overdose deaths in 2015, reports
filed this week in the Blair County
Courthouse show.
Coroner Patricia Ross and her
The overwhelming number of deaths was
assistants listed 38 fatal drug overamong the “hottest topics” being discussed
doses last year, up from 22 in 2014.
Cambria also recorded a significant jump in drug overdose deaths
Courts by Jan. 31, listing investiga- included a possible 38 drug overfrom 39 in 2014 to 58 in 2015.
dose deaths, 25 suicides, 31 motor
Coroners are required to file an- tions during the prior year.
In
Blair
County,
Ross
reported
vehicle deaths and five deaths by
nual reports in their county Office
of the Prothonotary and Clerk of 243 investigations in 2015, which fire. The number of drug deaths in-
Police
seize
heroin
cludes one by alcohol, and one
listed as a “probable” death due to
overdose.
Ross ruled one of the drug overdose deaths was a suicide.
Cambria County Coroner Jeffrey
Lees said 20 of his county’s 58 overdose deaths last year involved
heroin abuse.
See Deaths/Page A3
HOLLIDAYSBURG
ALL LINED UP
PennDOT
displays
options
Batch of drugs
linked to overdoses
BY GREG BOCK
Eight ideas shown
for intersection project
gbock@altoonamirror.com
BY SEAN SAURO
Police in Altoona have seized 100
packets of heroin in stamp bags
bearing the same names as heroin
linked to a rash of overdoses in Cambria County.
The heroin, packaged in wax packets stamped “Head Trauma” and
“Bulletproof,” were headed to Altoona on Tuesday night when Altoona police, acting on a tip, pulled
over and arrested two alleged drug
dealers, Terron L. Miller, 29, and his
girlfriend, Miranda McCulley, 19,
both of Altoona.
Altoona police Detective Sgt. Chris
Moser said police learned the pair
were headed to Johnstown on Tuesday to pick up heroin and armed
with the make and model of their vehicle, officers set up surveillance
and spotted Miller and McCulley
when they stopped at Sheetz in
Ebensburg.
Police then followed Miller’s and
McCulley’s vehicle to Altoona.
ssauro@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG — Dozens of
community members had a chance to
view multiple plans for an upcoming
intersection improvement project
Wednesday evening when Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
officials hosted an open house to receive feedback and answer questions.
The project, which focuses on the
intersection of Route 22 and North Juniata Street, is being developed to reduce traffic congestion and fix a
structurally deficient bridge along Allegheny Street, PennDOT project
manager Melissa Irwin said prior to
the open house.
“The intersection
does create some
issues with people
from out of town.”
Borough Manager
James Gehret
See Drugs/Page A3
Photo courtesy of Altoona police
Altoona police seized 100 packets
of heroin in bags stamped with
“Head Trauma” and “Bulletproof.”
T
Mirror photo by J.D. Cavrich
aking advantage of the mild temperatures on Wednesday, Eric
Fleck (left) and Jodi Baum of the Altoona Water Authority install
a new 8-inch water line along Crescent Drive behind Mansion Park.
The project also is intended to improve safety by revamping pedestrian
crossings and alleviating driver confusion at the intersection, Irwin said.
Area resident Paul Weaver, who attended the open house at PennDOT’s
District 9 office along North Juniata
Street, said he’s glad to see an attempt
to clear up confusion caused by the intersection in question, as well as Route
22’s intersection with Allegheny Street
— a triangular-shaped area Weaver
called the “Bermuda triangle.”
See Plans/Page A2
Mother of boy killed in crash had drugs in her system
Police have not ruled
on cause of accident
BY GREG BOCK
gbock@altoonamirror.com
A search warrant filed by Altoona police shows a mother who
crashed while driving her young
son to school, killing him, had
drugs in her system.
Christen E. Walter was driving
Search warrant shows Christen Walter
her 2007 Mitsubishi Galant southhad cocaine, opiates, amphetamine,
bound on North Logan Boulevard
benzodizepine and methadone in her system
the morning of Jan. 5, with her 5year-old son, Robert T. “Robbie”
Walter, sitting next to her in the being flown to Children’s Hospital ples followed, and on Wednesday,
front seat, when she crashed into a in Pittsburgh.
a search warrant filed in January
light pole.
A flurry of search warrants for was released by the courts that inRobbie died later that day after medical records and blood sam- dicates Christen Walter’s urinaly-
sis results showed she had cocaine, opiates, amphetamine, benzodizepine and methadone in her
system at the time of the crash.
Police are now awaiting the results of testing of Christen Walter’s blood to determine how much
of these drugs were in her system,
according to court records.
See Crash/Page A3
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Thursday, February 4, 2016
Feds work
to stem
overdoses
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Investigators were working on
arrests linked to roughly 30
nonfatal heroin overdoses in
recent days as federal and
local
law
enforcement
teamed up in hopes of getting
ahead of western Pennsylvania’s growing heroin epidemic.
Dangerous batches of
heroin — some laced with the
powerful painkiller fentanyl
— have caused the overdoses
in Cambria and Washington
counties, U.S. Attorney
David Hickton said at a news
conference Wednesday. The
Pittsburgh-based prosecutor
oversees 25 counties.
Hickton wanted to alert the
public to drugs sold in stamp
bags marked “Black Boot,”
‘’Boot Camp,” and “Peace of
Mind”
in
Washington
County and “Bulletproof”
and “Head Trauma” in Cambria. He said lab tests have already confirmed that some
Washington County heroin
was laced with fentanyl, a
powerful synthetic painkiller
often linked to overdoses.
Tests on the Cambria County
drugs were ongoing.
Hickton said the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the FBI and local agencies
have begun treating every
overdose as a criminal investigation into the dealers,
which wasn’t done in the
past.
The DEA is coordinating
the collection of data sheets
on each overdose.
CRASH:
Mechanical
failure not
ruled out
(Continued from Page A1)
While the urinalysis
showed drugs in Walter’s
system, police have not
ruled this as the cause of the
crash without further blood
toxicology information.
A mechanical failure has
yet to be ruled out as a factor, and police said the investigation will likely take
months. Walter’s attorney,
Thomas Dickey, said he believes that mechanical issues were a factor and that
the car was owned by a relative.
Altoona police had no further comment on the case
Wednesday, but search warrants filed in the case indicate Walter told responding
officers she had used cocaine about a week before
the wreck and that she is
prescribed Ativan and
Adderall, which she took the
night before. She also said
she had used bath salts in
the weeks prior to the crash
that killed her son.
Police said in court documents that officers learned
Walter is an opiate addict
who had been clean.
Dickey said Wednesday
that he hopes there will not
be a rush to judge his client.
“Certainly, we need to
look at the toxicology,” said
Dickey, adding that even if
urinalysis shows the presence of drugs, until there are
blood toxicology results
there is no way to say
whether the levels of what
was found are enough to impair a person.
“This woman is heartbroken,” he said.
Police said Walter was
running late getting her son
to school when she crashed
at about 9:20 a.m.
Video of the crash was obtained from a nearby business and was described by
police as showing the Mitsubishi headed south on
North Logan Boulevard before it drove off the pavement and struck the pole.
Police noted the car looked
to be traveling at a much
greater speed than other vehicles that passed by the
camera before the crash and
that it appeared no evasive
action was taken by Walter
before the car hit the pole.
The crash left Robbie Walter trapped, and he was ultimately pulled from the
vehicle by a responding Altoona Fire Department firefighter.
The crash remains under
investigation by Altoona police and state police accident
reconstructionists.
Altoona Mirror
LOCAL/STATE
I
Page A3
DEATHS: Many are listed due to ‘multi-drugs’
(Continued from Page A1) of
In many of the deaths, Lees
said users are found with the
needles still sticking out out
of their arms. This indicates
the heroin being used is of abnormal potency, much higher
that the user is expecting.
Ross said individuals who
have been in prison or away
from their drug of choice for a
period of time may also die instantly when they inject
themselves and their bodies
are not used to receiving what
was once considered a normal dose.
The sharp rise in drug overdose deaths locally falls into
a pattern that appears to be
nationwide.
Judy Rosser, executive director of the Blair County
Drug and Alcohol Program,
was contacted Wednesday
about the rise in drug deaths
while attending a conference
Community Anti-Drug
Coalitions of America in
Washington, D.C.
She said the spike in overdose deaths “is a national
issue.”
Pennsylvania in 2014 experienced more than 2,400 drug
overdose deaths. The numbers in 2015 appear to have increased.
The overwhelming number
of deaths was among the
“hottest topics” being discussed this week, said Rosser.
In the past year, Rosser
said, Blair County has formed
an Overdose Task Force to
focus on the problem.
Middle-aged most
affected
A review of the Blair
County coroner’s reports
made available to the public
on Monday, shows fatal overdoses do not involve young
people or teenagers.
Only five of those who died
were in their 20s while 13
were in their 30s, seven in
their 40s and 12 in their 50s.
One of the deaths was a 61year-old male.
Lees has found the same
pattern of middle-aged abuse
in Cambria County.
Rosser explained that
many adults receive prescription drugs to alleviate the
pain following an injury.
They become addicted and
that often leads to an overdose.
The Blair County deaths included25malesand13females.
In some cases, the drug that
caused the death is listed. The
deaths in 2015 were attributed
to heroin, methadone, fentanyl, oxycodone, oxymorphine and prescription drugs.
The Blair coroner, however, listed many of the
Blair County
drug deaths
2015: 38
2014: 22
2013: 27
2012: 20
2011: 27
2010: 15
Source: Coroner reports
helping them to have a better
idea of which drug is responsible for a particular death.
Lees said that his office is
investigating three possible
overdose deaths since the beginning of the year, two coming in the last week. He is
awaiting toxicology results
before declaring the deaths
were due to overdose.
Ross said Blair County has
had two heroin overdose
deaths so far this year.
Ross also stated that the
number of people with who
have experienced overdoses
and who return to the hospital due to a relapse is “phenomenal.”
Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio
said his office is aware of the
drug situation. He had no
other comment.
deaths due to “drug overdose,” “multi-drugs” or a
“combined drug overdose.”
Rosser said the science of
pinpointing which drug actually caused death when multiple drugs or alcohol are
involved is being refined.
The medical examiner in
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray
Allegheny County is working
with coroners in the state, is at 946-7368.
DRUGS: Miller wanted on outstanding warrants
(Continued from Page A1) ley told officers she had two sued a warning on its Face- ficers were unaware the cou- Prison following their ar-
Miller was wanted by Altoona police and the Blair
County Sheriff’s Department
on outstanding warrants so
officers initiated a traffic stop
when the pair reached Altoona about 8 p.m.
Miller was taken into custody, and McCulley was detained and read her Miranda
warning. Police said McCul-
bricks, or a total of 100 packets, of heroin hidden in her
bra.
The heroin packaged in
two 50-packet bricks bears
the same stamp as heroin
that Cambria County officials
announced Tuesday was suspected in a string of overdoses.
On Tuesday, Conemaugh
Memorial Medical Center is-
book page that seven overdoses were reported at the
hospital on Tuesday with six
more in the days prior all
likely linked to packets of
heroin marked with “Head
Trauma” and “Bulletproof.”
Moser said police had not
encountered those stamp
bags in Blair County prior to
Tuesday’s arrest of Miller
and McCulley. Moser said of-
ple would have those particular stamp bags on them when
they took them into custody.
Moser said the investigation, one that was funded
through Operation Our
Town, remains ongoing with
additional charges likely.
Miller and McCulley were
both booked on felony and
misdemeanor drug charges
and lodged in Blair County
raignment before Magisterial
District Judge Craig Ormsby.
Bail for Miller was set at
$70,000 cash, and McCulley’s
bail is $60,000 cash.
A preliminary hearing is
slated for Wednesday at Central Court before Magisterial
District Judge Todd Kelly.
Mirror Staff Writer Greg
Bock is at 946-7458.
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Report: Pa. overdose deaths spiking
Analysis finds heroin
remains ‘pervasive
drug of abuse’
throughout state
BY RYAN BROWN
rbrown@altoonamirror.com
A newly released report from the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration reveals the scope of a
worsening heroin crisis in Penn-
Cambria County holds the state’s third-highest death rate, while Blair
and Huntingdon counties have seen increases
sylvania, with overdose deaths
spiking in local counties even as
state officials push for solutions.
The July report, published last
week by the DEA’s Philadelphia
Field Office, tallies 3,383 drug overdose deaths in the state last year —
a 23 percent increase from 2014.
Cambria County holds the state’s
third-highest death rate, while
Blair and Huntingdon counties
have seen increases.
“Heroin remains a pervasive
drug of abuse,” the report stated,
noting that prescription opioids
also pose a threat. The new data
comes as Gov. Tom Wolf prepares
a new program to treat addicts,
with the recently approved 2016-17
state budget providing $15 million
for antidrug work. Combining that
with $5.4 million from the federal
government, Wolf’s administration hopes to establish at least 20
centers to treat thousands of users
across the state, spokesman Jeff
Sheridan said.
“This is a crisis that’s only getting worse,” Sheridan said. “We
need to continue to find ways to
PARK HOSTS ANNUAL POW WOW
combat this crisis.”
Cambria County’s overdose
death rate is among the highest in
the state, with 58 deaths translating to 42.5 per 100,000 residents.
That rate is well over twice Blair
County’s and more than four times
Centre County’s.
Like most of the state, Blair
County’s death rate increased as
well from 2014 to 2015, the DEA reported.
See Overdose/Page A8
VA stats
show
positive
results
Van Zandt satisfied
appointment needs
of 99.98 percent
of patients within
30-day leeway
BY WILLIAM KIBLER
bkibler@altoonamirror.com
N
For the first five months of this
year, the Van Zandt VA Medical
Center satisfied the appointment
needs of 99.98 percent of patients
within 30 days of those patients’ preferred appointment dates, Van Zandt
officials said Wednesday at a media
briefing.
Satisfaction within that 30-day leeway is the national VA target.
Mirror photos by Gary M. Baranec
ative American dancers from different tribes
(above) participate in the opening dance of the
19th annual Native American Pow Wow on Saturday
at DelGrosso’s Amusement Park. Jaydyn Spencer
(right), 8, of Duncannon, a member of the Abenaki
tribe, passes in front of a group of Native American
drummers on his way to perform for the several
hundred people in attendance.
Van Zandt
“really never had
a problem” with
patient access, said
local hospital
spokeswoman
Andrea Young
World War II-era P-38, an F4U Corsair fighter and a Vietnam War-era
attack helicopter.
The small but powerful planes
sometimes last only a few minutes
in the air under battery power, he
said.
Rorabaugh, a veteran himself,
said he longed to fly during his
Army service in Vietnam.
“I used to sit over there and
watch them fly those F4 jets. I
thought, ‘I’d like to do that,’” he
said. “But this is just as good. And a
little cheaper.”
Patient access has been the national VA bugaboo since scandalous
revelations regarding the Phoenix
VA in 2014, but Van Zandt “really
never had a problem,” said local hospital spokeswoman Andrea Young.
The national statistics for April of
this year weren’t bad — 96.6 percent
within 30 days, according to a sheet
provided at the meeting, but still
more than three percentage points
worse that Van Zandt’s.
The general run of appointments
at Van Zandt showed most patients
don’t need to wait anywhere near 30
days, according to Acting Director
Charlie Becker.
Ninety-one percent of the Van
Zandt’s appointments were fulfilled
within seven days, Becker said.
The average was just three or four,
he said. Those statistics, which show
almost total compliance with VA
guidelines, doesn’t mean total satisfaction, however, as survey statistics
the officials shared reveal.
See Planes/Page A8
See VA/Page A4
Veterans watch RC planes take flight at event
BY RYAN BROWN
rbrown@altoonamirror.com
DUNCANSVILLE — A row of
veterans watched along the runway Saturday as Dave Rorabaugh’s
P-38 Lightning rolled down the tarmac and lifted into the air.
Rorabaugh wasn’t in the cockpit,
of course — he held the controls
from far below, on the former Duncansville Airport site owned by the
Altoona RC Club. On Saturday, the
club invited a group of former servicemembers from the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home to its grounds
to watch the miniature planes
“This is the first time the (Veterans Home)
has come out. We’re very honored to have
them here.”
Altoona RC Club President Mike McLucas
in action.
“This is the first time the (Veterans Home) has come out,” club
President Mike McLucas said.
“We’re very honored to have them
here.”
Airplanes and helicopters buzzed
over the field, set back past a gravel
road near Foot of Ten. Club members can often be found there on
weekends, McLucas said, toying
with detailed (and often expensive)
model aircraft.
Among them was Rorabaugh of
Altoona, who stood among three of
his own: the instantly recognizable
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Altoona Mirror
Sunday, July 17, 2016
LOCAL
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Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
Overdose Prevention Project coordinator Renee Bambocci presents a naloxone
training session at the Blair County Drug and Alcohol Program office in Altoona
on Friday afternoon.
OVERDOSE: Fentanyl on the rise
(Continued from Page A1)
Its increase is eclipsed by
Huntingdon County’s, however, where overdose deaths
more than doubled from
three to eight in one year.
“I was rather surprised
when I saw Huntingdon had
jumped,” said Kelly Maffia, a
counselor and social worker
at Mainstream Counseling,
which contracts with the
county government. “It’s
hard to completely capture
what’s
overdose-related,
what’s drug-related.”
If the crisis has had a positive effect, Maffia said, it’s
that doctors, drug users and
the public at large have
become more aware of the
problem and its public
health implications.
“I think we still have work
to be done in that area, to
help make services more
accessible,” she said. “But I
think, because we’re having
the conversation, certainly
that enables individuals to
recognize the problem much
sooner and hopefully break
some of the denial.”
Most obvious among the
overdose trends is the sharp
and deadly rise in fentanyl, a
powerful opioid painkiller
sometimes combined with
heroin to ramp up potency.
Fentanyl is mentioned in
more than a quarter of coroners’ overdose reports
statewide, the DEA said,
nearly doubling the 2014
statistic.
Those numbers are borne
out in central Pennsylvania,
where fentanyl appears with
increasing frequency in
autopsy reports. From 2014
to 2015, the drug’s mentions
increased by 179 percent in
Blair County, 197 percent in
Cambria County and 160 percent in Centre County, the
agency reported.
These numbers — repeated in cities and towns across
the state — have spurred a
multi-million-dollar effort in
Harrisburg to address opioid
abuse.
Wolf announced last
month that he would call a
special session of the state
Legislature this year to handle the crisis.
“I think we
still have work
to be done
in that area,
to help make
services more
accessible.”
Kelly Maffia,
Mainstream Counseling
tional $5 million in state
Medicaid funds, Wolf hopes
to announce more centers
later this summer, he said.
The centers are intended
to treat thousands of addicts
in a push to treat the opioid
crisis as a medical, rather
than a criminal, problem.
Sheridan said Wolf has
worked
closely
with
Republican
lawmakers,
including on a new legislative push to tighten regulations on drug prescribers.
In a broad analysis of the
newly released data, DEA
officials said the key is to
prevent people from using
drugs in the first place,
praising community groups
that include schools, police
and religious leaders.
Use of the overdoseresponse drug naloxone
remains important, the officials said, stressing that
information and training on
the medicine needs to be provided wherever possible.
That’s the case in Blair
County, where officials
planned two naloxone training sessions, one last Friday
and one set for 6 p.m.
Tuesday at the Blair County
Drug and Alcohol office.
The anti-overdose drug,
DEA officials wrote, has
“undoubtedly saved many
lives” in Pennsylvania, particularly since health officials expanded its legal use
last year. But it remains one
of many routes to address
the growing crisis.
“This is an initiative that
affects every community in
Pennsylvania: urban, rural,
suburban,” Sheridan said.
His call makes the 35th
time in history that a
Pennsylvania governor has
issued such an order.
And while his original
request for $34 million was
whittled down to $15 million
during budget negotiations,
Wolf’s administration enters
the 2016-17 fiscal year with
funds to establish an
archipelago of governmentapproved treatment centers
across the state.
The first 20 so-called
Opioid Use Disorder Centers
of Excellence have already
been contacted, Sheridan,
his spokesman said. With
Mirror Staff Writer Ryan
federal money and an addi- Brown is at 946-7457.
PLANES: Former pilots like hobby
(Continued from Page A1)
The hobby attracts veterans, including a few current
and former pilots, McLucas
and Rorabaugh said.
The planes on display
Saturday fly like the real
thing, with working control
surfaces and miniature
propellers pulling them
along.
The Hollidaysburg vets
watched happily from
under a canopy. A representative from the state
Department of Military and
Veterans Affairs, which
oversees the Hollidaysburg
Veterans Home, said they
wouldn’t be available for
comment and noted that
any attempt to speak to
them would lead to their
being taken home.
It wasn’t clear whether
the decades-old club would
snare any new members at
Mirror photo by Ryan Brown
Dave Rorabaugh of Altoona readies his remotecontrolled P-38 Lightning for takeoff Saturday as
local veterans watch near Duncansville.
Saturday’s function, but
organizers
said
new
recruits are welcome. You
just have to be willing to
spend
the
money,
Rorabaugh explained with a
laugh.
“I quit smoking back in
1989 and I told my wife, ‘I’m
going to start buying airplanes,’” he recalled. “I took
the money from the
cigarettes and just started
buying planes.”
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