CONNERSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - State police say two eastern Indiana county jail inmates died from overdoses of a powerful synthetic drug.
State police began investigating after two Connersville men - 37-year-old Chad Sizemore and 30-year-old Thomas Lohr - were pronounced dead early June 6 in the Fayette County Jail.
Police say toxicology tests found that Sizemore and Lohr died from acute carfentanil intoxication. Carfentanil is an opioid used to tranquilize elephants and is considered 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
Sizemore was booked into the jail about an hour before he, Lohr and a third man were found unresponsive inside a cell. Police say the third man was hospitalized and recovered.
State police Sgt. John Bowling says investigators believe Sizemore smuggled the drug into the jail in a body cavity.
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