A synthetic drug, possibly designed to mimic cocaine or LSD, is suspected of contributing to the deaths of a teenage girl and a young man in Mankato last week at separate homes, and authorities are worried there is "more of this potentially deadly substance out there."
Officers at each residence where the two fell ill recovered similar blue baggies covered with images of gold-colored crowns, police said in a statement Tuesday night.
"Investigators believe that these baggies may have contained a substance in a pill or powder form, possibly synthetic LSD or synthetic cocaine, commonly called 2-C," the statement said. "There is concern that there may be more of this potentially deadly substance out there."
The victims were identified by police as Louis N. Folson-Hart, 22, of Mankato, and Chloe L. Moses, 17, a student at Mankato West High School.
On the afternoon of March 5, police and other emergency personnel were called to a residence in the 100 block of Glenwood Avenue. Folson-Hart was found not breathing, police said. He was taken by ambulance from his apartment to a hospital and died.
"It was so senseless what my son went through," said Marlis Folson, who just returned from her son's memorial ceremony near Siren, Wis. "Police explained that it was C-2 that he had ingested. Someone gave him the pill."
Folson said that a longtime friend of Folson-Hart's was with him in his final moments.
"Within 4 minutes of [talking the pill], Louie started saying, 'Oh, my God, oh, my God,' " Folson recounted.