By Jim Smith, Eagle Staff Writer

Heroin or a heroin mixture is the suspected cause of five deaths in Butler County in the first five days of this month.

Authorities do not believe a toxic batch is to blame, but the cases — two in Butler Township and one each in Butler and Adams and Slippery Rock townships — remain under investigation.

“We can't say what happened or what's going on until we get the (toxicology) tests back,” said Butler County Detective Tim Fennell, who heads the county's drug task force.

State and local police are awaiting toxicology results and final autopsy reports which could take several more weeks.

Police identified the dead as Elizabeth H. Arblaster, 24, of Cherry Township; Nichole R. Colosimo, 35, of Slippery Rock Township; Timothy Kerr, 47, of Butler Township; Jessica J. Martin, 38, of Butler; and Austin Rottman, 24, of Butler Township.

Investigators do not suspect a single batch of possibly contaminated heroin is responsible for the spate of deaths.

“There's nothing that indicates that,” Fennell said, noting the recent overdose victims apparently injected heroin delivered in bags with different names on them.

Butler Township Police Chief John Hays said Kerr's body was found about 1:50 p.m. Monday in his Dodge conversion van at the parking lot of an apartment building in the 900 block of East Jefferson Street.

Police say Kerr had been recently living in the van, which was fitted with a mattress in the back.

A neighbor at the apartment building, where a relative of Kerr's also lives, called 911 after noticing the van parked there and not knowing who it belonged to, investigators said.

Police found his body in the vehicle. There was no sign of trauma or foul play. Officers also found evidence of suspected heroin use, Hays said.

State police said Colosimo's 12-year-old son found her unresponsive about 4:30 p.m. Saturday at their home on Grove City Road.

“He heard a thud and found she fell off the bed in her room,” said state police Lt. Eric Hermick. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

During the search of the house, police seized numerous empty stamp bags of suspected heroin and syringes.

Only a day earlier, Hermick noted, police had been called to the house after Colosimo suffered a heroin overdose. An ambulance crew used the opiate antidote Narcan to revive her about 5 p.m. Saturday.

She refused further medical treatment after surviving the overdose, authorities said.

Butler police were called at 9:20 p.m. Saturday to Martin's home on North Chestnut Street after her husband awoke to find her apparently dead in the couple's bedroom.

Daniel Martin told police that he had fallen asleep on the couch. He later got up and went to check on his wife.

“He found her lying on the floor beside the bed, not breathing,” Butler police Deputy Chief David Adam said.

He told police that he gave Martin a shot of Narcan. He said she was a recovering heroin addict who had recently relapsed.

Daniel Martin told police that when he found his wife he also found two empty bags of suspected heroin. Police later recovered a syringe.

Butler Ambulance Service paramedics got there and worked on Martin for several minutes but they could not revive her.

Adams Township police about 10:10 a.m. Saturday found Arblaster dead in the bedroom of a home on Stoup Road. A family member discovered the unresponsive woman, who was visiting the home.

Officers later turned up empty bags of suspected heroin and syringes in the bedroom, said Adams Township Assistant Police Chief Robert Scanlon.

Butler Township police said Rottman died Thursday at his father's home in the 400 block of Whitestown Road, where he had been living in the basement.

A friend of the father found Rottman unresponsive about 8:30 a.m. and called 911. Hays said there was no sign of foul play and Rottman had no apparent injuries on his body.

While there, police said, officers also noticed what appeared to be “track marks” on his arm.

Rottman, just two weeks earlier, admitted that he had tried to cheat on a drug test at the Butler County Probation Office.

Fennell charged Rottman after he showed up July 7 for a mandated alcohol and drug screening.

He subsequently pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to a charge of attempting to furnish drug-free urine, at the office of District Judge Kevin O'Donnell. He was ordered to pay $512 in fines and court costs.

Fennell, meanwhile, said it was premature to speculate if any of the deaths this month could be connected to heroin laced with animal tranquilizer.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Thursday issued an “urgent” warning for residents and first responders about a new type of heroin mixed with the drug carfentanil, which is considered one of the most potent opioids in existence.

“Carfentanil is a veterinary drug used to sedate large animals and can be lethal to anyone who comes into contact with it — not just heroin users,” Secretary of Health Karen Murphy said in her department's advisory.

Heroin laced with carfentanil has been suspected of contributing to 174 overdoses in just six days in Cincinnati, according to the news release. But no overdoses from carfentanil-laced heroin have been confirmed so far in Pennsylvania.

In 2015, more than 3,500 Pennsylvanians died from drug overdoses. Heroin and opioid overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the state.

In Butler County, there have been 36 fatal overdoses to date this year, with nine other deaths still pending, according to the office of Coroner William Young III.

Fennell said that of those confirmed deaths, 29 were from street drugs including heroin and a heroin mix of the synthetic opiate painkiller fentanyl or cocaine.