Thurau K, Goerke R, Vogt S, Perdekamp MG, Weinmann W.
Institut fur Rechtsmedizin, Universitat Freiburg.
A 42-year-old female drug user who was enrolled in a methadone maintenance program was found dead in her apartment. Cause of death was an intoxication with chloral hydrate and L-methadone. Trichloroethanol (TCE), the primary metabolite of chloral hydrate, was quantified by solid phase microextraction (SPME) and GC/MS in heartblood (27 micrograms/ml) and urine (338 micrograms/ml). D- and L-methadone were differentiated by chiral HPLC, which showed that only L-methadone had been taken. The quantitation of L-methadone and its metabolite EDDP was carried out by GC/MS from heartblood (1300 ng/ml and 86 ng/ml, respectively), urine (5239 ng/ml and 4960 ng/ml, respectively) and gastric contents (159 ng/ml and 122 ng/ml, respectively). The concentrations of both--trichloroethanol and methadone--were in toxic ranges.
PMID: 12722558 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12722558&dopt=Abstract
Did anybody else hear on NG a caller say that this sleeping medication that is the purported cause of the death of Anna is the same drug that killed Marilyn Monroe (allegedly)? Is that true - anybody know? I bet both Anna and HKS knew what killed Marilyn Monroe since Anna was so infatuated with her....