Heroin overdose hours after release from jail

The young man whose lifeless body was discovered by his father at his residence in Sta Luċija on Sunday morning died of a heroin overdose, just hours after having been released from prison.

Police sources said Chris Bartolo, 28, was released from jail on Saturday evening after an eight-month sentence for theft.

The grim discovery was made by Mr Bartolo's father at their family home in Żnuber Street.

Initial police investigations led them to a 30-year-old woman from Paola who is believed to have sold Mr Bartolo the dose of heroin that killed him.

The mother of two is the wife of a man who is serving time in jail for drug-related offences and theft.

Police sources said shortly after Mr Bartolo's body was found, the police raided her residence in Paola where they found several sachets of heroin prepared for trafficking.

She was arrested and taken in for questioning. She is expected to be charged in court in the coming days. If the police manage to find enough evidence to link her to Mr Bartolo's overdose, she will be charged with supplying the lethal dose to Mr Bartolo and causing his death.

The autopsy on Mr Bartolo's corpse revealed he had died of pulmonary oedema, the cause of which is usually associated to overdoses.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a 30-year-old woman from Naxxar was found slumped in a car in Belliċ Street, Qormi at around 7 a.m. yesterday morning.

The police said an ambulance rushed the woman to Mater Dei Hospital where she was found to be in a critical condition.

A number of items related to drug abuse were found in the car, the police said, adding it had not yet been established whether or not they were hers.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli was informed of the case and appointed a number of experts to help in her investigations.