BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) —A coroner has identified three people found dead in an eastern Pennsylvania hotel room but says further tests are needed for a determination of the cause and manner of their deaths.
The Northampton County coroner said the deceased found at the south Bethlehem hotel were Krissy Bonnell, 28, Amos Johnson, 47, and Kevin Neilley, 48, all residents of Bethlehem.
Coroner Zachary Lysek said toxicology reports could take two or three months, but the deceased were found near evidence of drug use, including drug paraphernalia.
District Attorney Terry Houck said the hotel was briefly considered a hazmat scene after the sister of one of the men went to the hotel to check on her brother. Capt. Tim Cooper of Bethlehem police said it was unusual to have three drug deaths at once and the source of the deadly dose would be investigated.
Prosecutors in both Northampton and Lehigh counties have been taking drug deaths to court in recent years in an effort to curb the opioid epidemic.
“It used to be that you would chalk this up to a horrible tragedy, and it is. But we are not sitting back on that. We don’t do that anymore,” Houck said last week, The (Allentown) Morning Call reported. “We are going to go hard on the people who delivered these drugs.”
