CHICORA — A Butler County woman is accused of selling fentanyl-laced heroin that resulted in the September death of a Donegal Township man.

State police Monday arrested Julia L. Zaludek, 25, of Donegal Township on a charge of drug delivery resulting in death, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

She also is charged with criminal use of a communication facility, a third-degree felony, and involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Police allege Zaludek on Sept. 18 sold 33-year-old Joshua Lee Stitt stamp bags of heroin — marked with the label “Hit and Run” — that he injected.

Toxicology tests would later reveal the heroin, unbeknownst to Stitt, was mixed with the synthetic painkiller fentanyl, investigators said, which is known to heighten the dangers and potency of street drugs.

Stitt, a bricklayer and father of a 5-year-old son, later overdosed at his home where a Chicora Ambulance crew was called. He died in the ambulance on his way to Butler Memorial Hospital.

Police were immediately notified of the suspected fatal overdose and began their investigation.

Stitt's father, Daniel Stitt, with whom he lived, was pleased to learn of Zaludek's arrest.

“I'm glad that it happened,” he said Monday. “But it doesn't bring him back. (His son) still says, 'I miss dad.' It rips you apart.”

Daniel Stitt said he did not know Zaludek and did not know his son used heroin.

But he acknowledged Joshua was fighting an addiction to pain killers, which were prescribed after shoulder surgery in the spring of 2015.

However, police suspect Zaludek, the mother of a 5-year-old daughter, was Stitt's dealer.

Their secret meetings to buy and sell dope, authorities believe, were done under the pretext that they were getting together so their children could play with one another.

Family members said Stitt's son found his father unresponsive in his bedroom.

“He came out to me saying, “Pappy, I can't get dad up,'” Daniel recalled. “I ran up and checked his pulse and did CPR, then called 911.”

Daniel presumes his son was already dead when the ambulance came and left.

After Stitt was formally pronounced dead, criminal investigators went to Stitt's home, where Daniel gave troopers permission to search the house he owns, according to court documents.

Several empty bags of heroin stamped “Hit and Run” were recovered from Stitt's bedroom.

At an autopsy the next day, authorities found more empty bags marked “Hit and Run” in a front pocket of shorts that Stitt was wearing when he died.

The pocket also contained a syringe. An examination of his right arm showed a needle track mark.

A toxicology report eventually determined Stitt died of a combined heroin and fentanyl overdose.

Fentanyl is a time-release narcotic painkiller that when prescribed is delivered in a patch or pill. It is purportedly 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, according to health experts.

Police said the residue in all of the used stamp bags they recovered during their investigation also was tested and found to contain heroin and fentanyl.

Daniel said that while he was unaware that his son was using heroin, in hindsight, he can see how the addiction started.

“I think he got addicted to pain pills (after two shoulder surgeries),” Daniel said. “He then must have turned to heroin.”

Police on Sept. 18 got a call from Stitt's brother, who turned over to them key evidence from an unexpected source — an iPad belonging to the victim's son.

Investigators believe Stitt used his child's device to arrange drug deals with Zaludek.

The iPad, police said, turned up 51 pages of text messages from Stitt to the defendant's cell phone. Police said there was one dominant theme in all the texts — heroin.“It is obvious in the (texts) that Zaludek is selling heroin to Stitt on an almost daily basis up to and including the day before Stitt's death,” according to an affidavit for a search warrant that police obtained Dec. 17.In her texts, police said, Zaludek describes the quality of the heroin and provides its cost and the dates of its availability for delivery.Police eventually used the search warrant to scour Zaludek's cell phone for more evidence linking her as Stitt's drug dealerOn the day before his death, Stitt and the defendant exchanged 100 text messages “about getting heroin,” documents said.They hatched a story about taking their kids to the park to play, police suspect, to meet up and travel to Pittsburgh, where they allegedly bought a brick — 50 bags — of heroin for $500.District Judge Lewis Stoughton on Monday morning issued police an arrest warrant for Zaludek. Troopers immediately fanned out looking for her.Within an hour, she was in handcuffs.Following arraignment, Zaludek was placed in Butler County Prison on $50,000 bail. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney.Her preliminary hearing is set for April 19 at Stoughton's office in Chicora.The state attorney general's office will prosecute the case since Zaludek's mother, Bonnie Zaludek, works for the county district attorney's office.District Attorney Richard Goldinger said he immediately referred the case to the AG's office after learning of the investigation involving the daughter of one of his employees.“I made my decision to avoid a conflict of interest,” Goldinger said Monday.Bonnie Zaludek is employed as an assistant victim-witness coordinator. She declined to comment about the charges against her daughter.“She took a life and she needs to pay for it,” Daniel Stitt said of the defendant. “Now a 5-year-old boy doesn't have a father.”