Five people were discovered dead inside a Colorado apartment — where a 4-month-old baby was also found alive — after what police are investigating as a drug-fueled party involving fentanyl, officials said.
The bodies of three women and two men were discovered inside a unit at the North Range Crossings Apartments on East 104th Avenue, Commerce City Police Chief Clint Nichols said, the Denver Post reported.
Another adult and an infant were found alive, he added.
District Attorney Brian Mason said that the deaths were fentanyl-related.
“No drug is safe right now. People who are taking drugs and not knowing that fentanyl is laced within them are dying,” Mason told CBS4.
“Tonight tragically, it appears that five of our fellow citizens died because of it,” he added.
The victims were discovered in a “nightmare of a scene” on the third floor, the DA said.
Two milligrams of the synthetic opioid can be fatal, CBS4 reported, citing the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Nichols told reporters earlier that a substance that “could be described as illicit narcotics” was found in the home in the city about 7 miles northeast of Denver.
“If it is going to be illicit drugs, they were very, very bad,” he said, according to the Denver Post. “If it was drugs, no one was able to get to a phone and call 911 for a medical emergency.
“It happened pretty quickly — speculation on my part,” added the chief, who noted that it did not appear the victims died violently.
There also was no indication of any hazardous gases in the area, Nichols said.
Neighbor Ian Scott, 31, told the newspaper that he stepped outside when he heard screaming Sunday afternoon and saw a distraught woman holding a baby while talking on the phone.
She appeared “high as a kite,” he said, adding that she told him she’d administered a drug used to reverse overdoses to a man in the apartment.
Scott said he heard what sounded like a party with music and loud noise late Saturday.
Investigators were unsure if the infant’s parents were in the apartment and whether the five people found dead all lived there, Nichols said.
The baby appears to be doing fine, he said, adding that it was unclear whether the infant is a boy or a girl.
The identities have not yet been released.
