CINCINNATI — A police officer and leader of the Hamilton County Heroin Task Force has shed more light on the overdose death of a 26-year-old man whose family questioned whether there was more to his death than just drugs.
In January, Bill and Sheila Wall said the investigation into their son's death left them with more questions than answers.
Their son, Andrew, was found dead on January 3, 2023, inside his Emerald View apartment in Price Hill. The couple hadn’t seen him for days and his last face-to-face conversation with them was on Christmas in 2022, at their home in Northern Kentucky. He told them that he had planned to let a homeless man stay with him as the weather was brutally cold that night.
The Walls said it wasn’t out of the norm for Andrew to want to help someone but it was the first time he was opening his home.
The next day, Bill noticed random credit card charges on the card Andrew used and he called him about it.
“He just seemed very short and abrupt. I mentioned to him about, you know, the misuse or the credit card charges. And he said he hadn't had any issues, and kind of brushed me off and said, you know, seemed a little agitated and said, ‘I'll talk to you later.’ Very short, less than a minute call, then after the fact, we find all these charges kept multiplying,” said Bill.
Months after Andrew’s death, his parents learned he was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 28.
“The police did tell us that 911 calls were made from his phone,” Bill said. “You can hear Andrew’s voice in the background. So we know Andrew went to the hospital.”
He showed up at Good Samaritan hospital by ambulance. The medical records provided by the family show he arrived at 3:51 a.m. and was admitted into the ER at 3:56 a.m. The diagnoses include “opiate overdose, accidental or unintentional,” exacerbation of asthma and “psychoactive substance abuse.”
Andrew was discharged from the hospital that morning at 6:50 a.m.
The Walls said they knew he used marijuana and mushroom tea but said they never knew him to use opiates.
“He was taken by ambulance, but how did he get back to his apartment and then shortly thereafter had an overdose? That doesn't make sense to us ... It's, it's very frustrating that all these pieces don't make sense. And yet, the police aren't questioning any of those components that don't make sense," said Bill.
Those components, according to the family, include but aren’t limited to the credit card charges, Andrew’s missing rings, earrings and phone and other valuables at his apartment and that Andrew’s car was also found outside the downtown branch of the Cincinnati Public Library about two weeks after his body was found.
The Wall family also said there was no drug residue or paraphernalia found at Andrew's apartment.
Tom Fallon, officer with the Amberly Village Police Department and head of the Hamilton County Heroin Task Force, reached out to WCPO after the report aired about the Wall family's concerns.
In January, Bill told WCPO he thought perhaps the reason no drug paraphernalia or residue was found in Andrew's apartment pointed to the scene having been cleaned.
Fallon said it's more likely that was because law enforcement collected it for evidence.
"In Andrew's case, they were able to collect some evidence, drug evidence, as well as some drug paraphernalia that was submitted to the coroner's office for drug identification, as well as DNA testing," said Fallon.
Police also traced the Walls' evidence about the charges made to Andrew's credit card, pulling video from downtown businesses to try and trace Andrew's whereabouts before his overdose.
"Our mission is to investigate overdose deaths back to the supplier," said Fallon. "Our detectives, actually, on this particular case, ran down some of the leads on the stolen credit card, pulling video at different places downtown. It was, you know, because you're trying to figure out, did Andrew use it? Or did somebody steal it and use it."
Unfortunately, Fallon said the video officers found didn't help much.
Neither did surveillance footage that captured someone in Andrew's car outside the downtown Library. The grainy footage was difficult to interpret, but the person inside the car didn't seem to match the description of the man Andrew's family thought was with him in his final hours.
"They're just running down lead after lead," said Fallon. "And these cases are ... they're very difficult, because there's just a lot of things that make them difficult to solve."
Fallon said he understands the Walls' frustrations — he's seen it before, in his nearly 9 years with the task force.
It's because of the Walls and families like them that Fallon said the task force is working to help more in cases like Andrew's.
"We have a partnership that we're in the process of developing," said Fallon. "I'm going to get an officer, retired police officer in this office, working directly with the Hamilton County Public Health for families."
He said that change will help with better communication between police and families during investigations, and can help connect families to resources.
