Police still seek clues in 2006 overdose death of Girard woman

YOUNGSTOWN — Veronica Rose Luthern’s obituary described the one-time cheerleader as a friendly teenager who worked as a waitress, enjoyed sports and liked to dance.

There was also a tragic dark side to the pretty, brown-haired girl.

A coroner’s report, compiled from family interviews, described her as a tattooed drug abuser and high school dropout trying to get a degree online. The report added that she worked at strip clubs and prowled seedy North Side drug houses.

She declined to seek treatment for her bipolar disorder, investigators were told, choosing instead to self-medicate with Xanax, a drug used to treat anxiety.

At 6:45 a.m. June 27, 2006, a passer-by discovered Veronica’s lifeless, rain-soaked body face up on a desolate stretch of Sycamore Street, just west of Andrews Avenue on the North Side. She’d turned 18 on May 6.

Veronica was wearing a green and white halter top and blue jeans. Her purse, with cash inside, and flip-flop sandals were nearby.

The jeans were pulled down to midthigh, and there was a small amount of grease or oil on her neck, which appeared to Rick Jamrozik, a coroner’s investigator, to mean that someone had grabbed the pants to pull her out of a vehicle.

Toxicology tests showed she had ingested cocaine, Fentanyl (a high-potency opiod), OxyCodone (pain killer) and Benzodiazepine (sedative). The drug cocktail caused her death.

How she came to overdose to her death, however, falls into the “could not be determined” death category. Nationwide, 2 percent of deaths land in that category.

An intentional overdose wasn’t considered because family who saw her the night before told investigators that she was “looking to party.” The Girard girl’s death was likely an accidental overdose but that wasn’t determined with certainty, Jamrozik said.

There have been situations, he said, where people passed out from drugs have been injected with an overdose and died. Such deaths could be considered homicide, he said.

“There’s a chance she was alive when dumped,” Jamrozik said. “I remember looking at her [recent] driver’s license photo, she looked hardened, compared to the 2004 Hubbard High School ID I found in her purse.”

He termed what happened to Veronica’s appearance between 2004 and 2006 the result of a “downward spiral.”

Jamrozik hopes someone comes forward with information about what happened.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.