85 Heroin/Fentanyl Deaths: 2017 Will County Community Breakdown

Christopher Shanine's life was starting to crumble this time a year ago. In March, the 25-year-old Shorewood resident spent a week in the Will County jail after Plainfield Police arrested him for retail theft.

Within a week of his release from detention, Romeoville Police picked him up for another retail theft. That time, Shanine stayed in jail for three weeks. Then, on May 5, Shorewood Police officers took him into custody for more felony theft charges. Shanine stayed in jail for more than a month, until June 9. Then came the tragedy.

At about 5 a.m. June 23, Shanine's body was found near his bicycle in a subdivision parkway in Shorewood's Kipling Estates. The Will County Coroner's Office later ruled that Shanine died from an accidental drug overdose involving fentanyl intoxication.

Last year, 85 people in Will County died from accidental drug overdoses attributed to heroin or fentanyl, according to statistics compiled by the Office of Will County Coroner Patrick K. O'Neil.

Joliet, the state's third largest city with a population around 150,000, had three dozen heroin/fentanyl deaths last year — the most of any community in Will County.

However, many of Will County's considerably smaller cities and villages including Shorewood, New Lenox and Mokena, were hardly immune to the heroin and fentanyl epidemic claiming several of their young people. As for fentanyl, the National Institute on Drug Abuse classifies it as being "a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent." It's considered a heroin substitute.

Of the 85 deaths attributed to heroin and fentanyl in Will County in 2017:

• 58 percent occurred outside Joliet
• At least 18 communities had a death.
• At least seven communities or areas had at least three deaths.
• A total of 25 people in their 20s died; another two were teenagers.
• Joliet, New Lenox, Romeoville, Lockport and Lemont all had multiple deaths of someone younger than 30.
• So far in 2018, there have been at least eight more deaths; mostly in the Lincoln-Way region of New Lenox, Mokena, Frankfort and Manhattan.

The 85 deaths attributed to heroin and fentanyl is also more than Will County saw in recent years. In 2016, for instance, Will County had 78 deaths, according to the coroner's office. For 2015, Will County had 53 deaths.

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch interviewed the Will County Sheriff's Department, as the police agency remains aggressive in its approach to busting heroin dealers. Rarely a week goes by in Will County without multiple felony arrests involving someone suspected of distributing heroin.

According to sheriff's officials, the No. 1 priority remains tracking down and stopping heroin traffic coming into Will County communities. For now, the influx of heroin continues to be coming from the southeast and southwestern parts of Chicago. The areas of Harvey and Dolton are also high heroin traffic areas, according to sheriff's police.

"These areas remain ... our focus in the fight against the heroin epidemic," Will County Sheriff's police informed Patch.

Will County cases involving heroin deaths often remain at the forefront even years after a loved one dies. Plus, there's an accountability factor. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow and his staff have had several successful prosecutions in recent years of defendants charged with drug-induced homicide.

Two examples include the recent criminal conviction against Shorewood drug dealer Dwight Musson for the 2013 death of Joliet teenager Becky Sova. In January, Bolingbrook resident Daksh Relwani was shipped off to prison for his role in the March 2016 death of 21-year-old Naperville resident Josh Kasnicka. The Naperville family just filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Will County against Relwani and Relwani's parents accusing them of knowingly operating a heroin house in Bolingbrook.

RELATED: Musson Guilty In Becky Sova's Death

RELATED: Bolingbrook Family's Heroin Home Caused Death: Lawsuit

Here's a breakdown of heroin and fentanyl overdose deaths from last year, based on the Will County Coroner's Office data.

JOLIET/JOLIET TOWNSHIP 36

January 2017: white female, 37
white male, 27
white male, 24
Mexican male, 61
white female, 28
white male, 56
February 2017: white male, 27
white male, 38
March 2017: white male, 55
Mexican male, 28
April 2017: white female 57
black male, 39
May 2017: white male, 58
June 2017: Mexican male, 29
black female, 37
white male, 37
July 2017: white male, 39
white male, 41
white female, 18
white male, 40
August 2017: Mexican male, 22
white female, 31
white female, 30
white male, 51
September 2017: white male, 32
white female, 49
white female, 29
white male, 32
black female, 25
October 2017: white male, 53
white male, 42
black female, 34
white female, 44
November 2017: white male, 36
December 2017: black male, 60
white female, 26

LOCKPORT/LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP (8)
March 2017: white male, 26
May 2017: white male, 25
July 2017: Asian Indian male, 21
September 2017: white male, 39
September 2017: white male, 53
November 2017: white male, 31
November 2017: white male, 49
December 2017: white male, 45

ROMEOVILLE (7)
February 2017: white male, 28
March 2017: white male, 40
July 2017: white male, 20
July 2017: white male, 46
October 2017: white female, 30
October 2017: Mexican male, 40
October 2017: white male, 29

NEW LENOX (5)
April 2017: white male, 28
July 2017: white male, 19
July 2017: white male, 26
September 2017: white female, 24
November 2017: white male, 31

MOKENA (5)
January 2017: white male, 36
March 2017: white male, 34
July 2017: white male, 49
August 2017: Asian Indian male, 47
November 2017: white male, 30

SHOREWOOD (3)
June 2017: white male, 25
August 2017: white female, 30
November 2017: white male, 50

WILMINGTON AREA (3)
March 2017: white male, 37
September 2017: white male, 41
November 2017: white male, 55

LEMONT (2)
July 2017: white female, 25
September 2017: white female, 25

BOLINGBROOK (2)
April 2017: white female, 45
April 2017: white female, 26

PLAINFIELD (2)
March 2017: black/white male, 23
November 2017: white male, 38

AURORA (2) (most of Aurora is in Kane, DuPage counties as well as Kendall and Will)
October 2017: white female, 32
December 2017: black male, 34

FRANKFORT TOWNSHIP
August 2017: white male, 30

MANHATTAN
April 2017: white male, 31

MINOOKA
April 2017: white male, 29

ORLAND PARK
June 2017: white male, 46

CREST HILL
November 2017: white female, 43

PEOTONE
January 2017: white male, 51

STEGER
March 2017: white female, 59

3 additional Will County deaths

February 2017: black male, 49, investigated by Illinois State Police (local jurisdiction not listed)
July 2017: black male, 47, investigating police agency unavailable.
December 2017: black male, 67, Illinois Department of Corrections.

Main photo: Christopher ShanineWill County Sheriff's Department

Statistical source: Will County Coroner's Office