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.
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