The four people found dead outdoors in Denver over the cold, snowy weekend all likely died of drug overdoses, according to the city’s public health department.
Two people were found dead Saturday — on Wewatta Street near Union Station and northeast of downtown in Jefferson Park — and two on Sunday — on South Broadway in Baker and on East Colfax in City Park, the Denver Police Department reported.
While the cases will not be finalized for several weeks, preliminary testing suggests all four likely suffered fatal drug overdoses, said Tammy Vigil, a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, in an email Tuesday.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner, during autopsies, noted no definitive signs of hypothermia from the weekend’s frigid temperatures, Vigil said. A police spokesperson previously had told JS that investigators didn’t believe either of Saturday’s two deaths were related to the cold snap.
Overdose deaths in Denver so far in 2023 already have surpassed 2022’s total number of fatal overdoses, according to the medical examiner’s online dashboard of overdose deaths.
So far, 459 people in Denver have died of drug overdoses, up from 2022’s total of 453.
Among Denver’s population of people experiencing homelessness, drug overdoses are the overwhelming leading cause of death.
Of the 256 homeless people who died in Denver between January and October, 170 of them died of overdoses.
The “outside death” designation of the four weekend cases doesn’t necessarily mean they were people experiencing homelessness. Anyone who is found dead outside of a building — on a road or sidewalk, in a car, in a park, in a parking lot — is included in that category, Vigil said.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner has not yet publicly identified the four people found dead over the weekend.
Denver provides free harm reduction resources to residents, including fentanyl test strips and naloxone, the latter of which Denverites have increasingly needed to use in response to public overdoses.
Confidential substance use help is available through Colorado Crisis Services online, over the phone at 1-844-493-TALK(8255) or over text by sending “TALK” to 38255.
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