L-W Heroin Deaths Keeping Pace With Joliet

A couple months back, Patch brought you an exclusive in-depth story revealing that Will County lost 85 lives last year as a result of an accidental drug overdose involving heroin and fentanyl. So far this year, that number of deaths is not slowing down.

As of May 1, the Will County Coroner's Office listed a total of 27 heroin-related deaths so far. However, it's important to remind readers that many death cases take at least four to six weeks before the toxicology and laboratory test results come back. In other words, the three overdose deaths currently listed for the month of April could easily double or triple. Will County had 24 heroin deaths through the end of March.

Based on the current heroin statistics compiled by Will County's Coroner, here's a look at the key findings for the first part of 2018:

• 8 heroin overdose deaths occurred within Joliet;
• 2 more deaths were in Joliet Township
• 8 heroin deaths have occurred in the Lincoln-Way area

For Lincoln-Way: the heroin statistics show:

• 4 of the 8 deaths occurred in New Lenox or New Lenox Township
• 2 of the 8 were in Mokena.
• Manhattan and Frankfort each had one person die of a heroin overdose so far this year.
• 6 of the 8 overdose deaths involved someone in their 30s.
• The oldest person to die in the Lincoln-Way area so far this year was 40.
• The youngest person to die was 20, Joey Harmon of New Lenox. He was the younger brother of New Lenox heroin-homicide defendant Mark Harmon. Mark Harmon has been jailed for more than three years now in connection with the Dec. 24, 2014 heroin death of Jeff Tediski.

RELATED: New Lenox Heroin-Induced Homicide Case Set For June Trial

RELATED: 85 Heroin/Fentanyl Deaths For 2017, Community Breakdown

Looking at the Will County region as a whole:

• The youngest person to die in 2018 from heroin was a Tinley Park teen, 19.
• The oldest heroin overdose fatality was 62, a Crest Hill man.
• Four deaths occurred in Homer Glen-Lockport Township.
• Romeoville, Bolingbrook and Wilmington have all had at least one heroin fatality so far this year.

Looking at overall accidental overdoses involving all drugs including but not limited to heroin:

• Will County reports 42 such deaths as of May 1.

In 2017, Will County reported 117 accidental overdoses, of which 85 were heroin/fentanyl related.

View the coroner's 2018 overdose death statistics.

Main photo Joey Harmon via Brady-Gill Funeral Home in Tinley Park.