St. Louis County Jail Alexander Claussen, of St. Cloud, Minn., was charged with third-degree murder in the drug-related death of Woodbury teen Tara Fitzgerald. Five Minnesota teens have been charged with murder after a 17-year-old girl overdosed in January on a synthetic form of LSD, prosecutors say.
The drug made it to Woodbury, a suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, last fall after the five teens passed the drug amongst themselves and eventually gave it to Tara Fitzgerald, who was found unresponsive Jan. 11, according to Washington County Attorney Pete Orput.
“When an illegal drug enters our community, all of those involved — those who create it, sell it or give it away — are responsible for what happens with that drug,” Orput said in a news release. “We are especially concerned with those individuals who distribute illegal drugs to juveniles. We will prosecute those individuals to the full extent of what the law allows.”
Charged with third-degree murder were 19-year-olds Alexander Clausen and Cole Matenaer and 17-year-olds Sydney Johnson, Alistair Berg and Brian Norlander. The 17-year-olds will likely be charged as adults.
Courtesy of Washington County sheriff’s office Cole Matenaer, of Woodbury, Minn., has been charged with third-degree murder in the death of Tara Fitzgerald after being part of drug chain. According to prosecutors, the acid-like hallucinogenic, known clinically as 25i-NBOMe, originated with Claussen, of St. Cloud. He later sold it to Matenaer, who sent it along to the underage kids, authorities say.
A search of Claussen’s home turned up 305 doses of the drug, which he was selling for $ 10 each, KARE-TV reported.
Fitzgerald died of 25i-NBOMe toxicity, tests showed.
Star Tribune Tara Fitzgerald was found unresponsive on Jan. 11 but officials did not announce charges until Wednesday. Washington County recorded six overdose deaths in 2013, and Orput told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that his office has pursued murder charges against drug suppliers in those cases.
“When you get a kid death, it’s the worst thing that can happen to all of us,” he said in January after the teen’s death. “We’ve got to do something about this.”
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