The man who died Monday after a suspected fentanyl overdose at the Thurston County jail has been identified.
Coroner Gary Warnock identified the man as Alec Nieland-Herrera, 28. His official cause of death will be determined after a toxicology report has been completed, Warnock said.
Nieland-Herrera was one of six people who have experienced fentanyl overdoses at the county jail since March 5. Corrections staff found him in an unresponsive state in his cell March 9 and medics transported him to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Staff conducted CPR and administered Narcan, a medicine that reverses overdoses, in each of the six cases, according to the Sheriff's Office. Four men were reportedly revived with Narcan on-site.
Another man suffered an overdose around midnight on Tuesday, March 14, according to the Sheriff's Office. Medics also transported him to St. Peter Hospital, where he remained in critical condition.
Nieland-Herrera had been accused of robbing a convenience store on the 9400 block of Martin Way East on Feb. 9, court records show. A jury trial for his case was scheduled to start in April.
The Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office has been tapped to lead the investigation into Nieland-Herrera's death as part of the Region 3 Critical Incident Investigation Team, according to the Sheriff's Office.
In a Wednesday Facebook post, the Thurston County Sheriff's Office announced they locked down a dorm and requested K9s from partner agencies to search for fentanyl.
K9 teams from the Tualatin Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon responded and swept the jail for drugs on Tuesday, the post says. They allegedly found a "presence of fentanyl" in five cells.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reportedly sent four more K9 teams to sweep the jail. The Sheriff's Office alleges they found fentanyl in a sixth cell. The post says a criminal investigation is underway.
"TCSO thanks our partner agencies for dispatching their invaluable narcotics K9s to help us eradicate this issue," the post says. "We will continue to provide updates as they become available."
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that's 50-100 times stronger than morphine and is often mixed with other substances without the user's knowledge.
These recent overdoses follow a wider trend in Thurston County. Deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled from 51 deaths in 2021 to at least 114 deaths in 2022, Warnock told the Board of Health on Tuesday.
* Narcan, generically known as naloxone, is a medicine used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. The state Department of Health has a list of instructions and resources on its website, as well as a search engine to help people find naloxone near them.
* Thurston County's Public Health & Social Services department also offers a clean syringe program and naloxone training; more information can be found on the department's website.
* Those in need of help for substance abuse or mental health concerns can call the Washington Recovery Help Line at 866-789-1511.
* Anyone experiencing a crisis can call 988 to reach a national lifeline.
* Education on how to prevent opioid overdose can be found at stopoverdose.org.
