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Elma: Woman arrested in drug-related death

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published September 17, 2009

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Grays Harbor Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 43-year-old Aberdeen woman last week for allegedly providing prescription methadone to an 18-year-old Elma man who fatally overdosed on the drug.

Undersheriff Rick Scott said the woman, who previously lived in Elma, provided Austin C. Burrows with a large amount of methadone, a prescription painkiller often used as a heroin replacement.

“She was a major source of the pharmaceuticals that he was using,” Scott said.

Detectives launched a “thorough investigation” into Burrows’ death after he was found April 1. Scott said evidence points to the woman providing the drugs and that she has been arrested on suspicion of controlled-substance homicide.

Detectives completed their investigation in June, Scott said, but waited for the results of Burrows’ toxicology tests before recently obtaining a warrant for the woman’s arrest.

She has been booked into the Grays Harbor County Jail pending charges.