‘So tragic’: Santa Cruz toddler’s possible fentanyl overdose death ‘rare’ as cases spike

The Santa Cruz Police Department is investigating the death of an infant as a potential fentanyl overdose. Police and harm reduction and substance use disorder professionals said it would be a very uncommon occurrence should the full autopsy confirm the suspected overdose.

“So rare. As far as I know, this is our first case,” said Jen Hastings, lead physician for the local substance use safety coalition SafeRx, noting that it has not yet been confirmed as an overdose. “We worry about this and talk about it, and I know of cases, but before now, not personal or local.

“So tragic. The mother must feel horrible.”

“I can’t say it’s never happened, but in my years that I’ve been here, I can’t recall an incident like this occurring. It’s very, very rare.” SCPD Deputy Chief Jon Bush told Lookout on Thursday. He has been with SCPD for 26 years.

According to a SCPD media release, officers responded to a report from Dominican Hospital that a woman brought in her deceased infant daughter on Sunday. Officers promptly observed the deceased 18-month-old and met with the mother, 38-year-old Korisa Woll. She was eventually charged with felony child abuse.

Bush said investigators interviewed Woll and other potential witnesses; they also secured search warrants for cellphones, computers, social media and the residence where the child was believed to have died. Officers soon executed those search warrants at a River Street residence, the home of an acquaintance of Woll’s, said Bush, where she and her daughter were “staying or visiting.”

Bush said that, although the full autopsy was not yet complete, initial results showed cocaine and fentanyl in the infant’s system — a major factor in investigating the death as a possible overdose. Further, he said there was “evidence of narcotic and drug activity” at the residence officers searched.

“We don’t know what actually killed this child, and we’re exploring and open to any possibilities that may have caused this child’s death,” he said. “But based on the evidence we found at the scene, and cocaine and fentanyl in the child’s system, [an overdose] is one possibility that we’re looking at.”

Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Ashley Keehn said the coroner’s office is still waiting for the full toxicology report to make a final determination on the cause of death. She said she was checking with the coroner’s office for data on how frequent child overdoses are, but had not given any figures by publication time. In early July, the coroner’s office refused to share its latest data on fentanyl with Lookout amid a spike in Santa Cruz County overdoses and deaths. 

Keehn added that Sheriff Jim Hart would not comment on the case. He recently told Lookout that he sees preventing first use of fentanyl and reducing demand as the only ways to pull ahead of the scourge.

County public health spokesperson Corinne Hyland and county health services manager Ramy Husseini referred media requests to county spokesperson Jason Hoppin. Hoppin said he only has the information that the police provided.

Husseini previously told Lookout that the sheriff’s office data team and public health officials were working together, something he had not seen before in his years working in public health.

The opioid crisis has ravaged Santa Cruz County in recent years. Last year alone saw the synthetic opioid fentanyl kill 133 people in the county, according to a 2023 Facebook post from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. That’s twice as many as the 66 in 2022. In 2019, there were just five deaths. The office launched a Fentanyl Crisis Response Team last year.

Woll was still in custody as of Thursday morning, said Bush. She is set for arraignment next Wednesday, Aug. 7, at 8:15 a.m.

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