Pubdate: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 Source: New York Daily News (NY) Copyright: 2006 Daily News, L.P. Contact: http://www.nydailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295 Author: Allison Gendar Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) BAD HEROIN EYED IN QUEENS OD'S Cops were investigating whether three more overdoses in Queens are tied to tainted heroin. One of the latest victim's sisters said she wanted to warn others against the deadly batch. "If my bother's death can save one person - that's all we can hope for now," said a grieving Theresa Yodice of Broad Channel. Yodice's brother Philip Girace, 31, was found dead at his Broad Channel apartment Monday morning. Near his body were remnants of a bag of drugs. Girace's buddy Joseph Knapp, 24, died Sunday morning from a drug overdose, and a third pal was hospitalized after the trio shared the same batch, sources said. Investigators were checking whether the two men are the latest to die from fentanyl-tainted heroin - nicknamed Infinity and Thunder Bolt - that has claimed at least 23 lives in the city since May and hundreds more nationwide. Fentanyl is a painkiller 50 to 80 times more powerful than morphine and can lead to accidental overdoses. Yodice said her younger brother had been drug-free for several months and had gotten a good construction job. "He was in recovery, and he slipped," Yodice said. "But if anyone . . . slips up with this horrible stuff, there is no second chance. They are dead." In August, the Daily News broke the story of the first fentanyl deaths in New York City since the early 1990s. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl