Detective Tim Kluntz interviewed dancers at the club who knew Berthiaume as “Phoenix,” and told him they The night she died, Berthiaume called Delucia. She sounded desperate, he said, and she needed something to “get straight.” He knew she wanted heroin, he told police.
With $75 he bought five packets stamped with “No. 1″ from two men in the back of a garage on Meriden Road, he told police. He mounted his motorcycle, drove to the club and slipped Berthiaume a dose of drugs that would end her life.
She thanked him with a kiss, then disappeared for about 15 minutes, he said. But when Delucia heard a commotion near the bathroom, he ignored it and was later told a dancer had overdosed, he told police.
The heroin found in Berthiaume’s purse was 59.8 percent pure, according to court documents. Although her death was ruled an accident, she died of heroin intoxication.
Naturally, I can’t find the link to the original article, neither on the paper’s website nor via Google.
UPDATE 04/06/2009: I just recently found out that it’s illegal to post the entire article without the paper’s permission, so the above is only an excerpt. The gist of it is that the police tracked down the guy who sold our Liane the heroin she overdosed with, and he is being charged with manslaughter. He’s been convicted for various things before, so his chances of getting away with this are pretty low.
I’m sort of glad to see they got him, but sad that it won’t bring her back. I haven’t heard anything since I originally posted the article.
