The toxicology report is back for the woman who was found dead on Saturday in Ironton.

The woman’s name is Autumn Phillips, 23, with a last address known being in Portsmouth.

“The cause of death was an accidental overdose of fentanyl,” said Ironton Police Detective Captain Brian Pauley, citing a toxicology report that arrived on Thursday morning.

The IPD got a call on Saturday around 4:30 p.m. from some people walking the Ironton Bike Path that they had noticed a woman in the backseat of a car at the Storms Creek park. The woman wasn’t moving and the vehicle was locked. They were unsure if she was asleep or dead.

Police had to break a window to get into the car and confirmed the woman was dead.

Pauley said the car was Phillip’s. He said they have no idea why was she was in town.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that was developed to help with the pain management of people suffering from cancer and is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.

While the effects of the drug include pain relief, relaxation and euphoria, some of the side effects are confusion, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and the depression of the respiratory system.

Pauley said they have seen a rise of accidental fentanyl-related overdoses in the city.

“That seems to be what most of overdoses are, fentanyl or some derivative” he said. “Meth and fentanyl are all we are seeing anymore. And the problem is that a lot of the meth has fentanyl in it. So, people don’t know what they are getting in the drug purchases. It’s crazy.”

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The Ironton Police Department is investigating the death of a woman found in a car at the Storms Creek park on Saturday.
IPD detective Captain Brian Pauley said that around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, people were walking on Ironton’s walking path that follows the Ohio River and when they came to the Storms Creek park, they saw a woman lying in the backseat of a car which had its windows rolled up and the doors locked.
“They thought that was kind of suspicious, so they called the police department. We went down there and when they looked in, they could tell the woman was deceased,” Pauley said. “So, we had to bust out a window to open the doors.”
Pauley said that there were no signs of foul play and that they took a sample for a toxicology screen and that has been sent to a lab.
“Hopefully, we will get the tox screen back on Wednesday,” Pauley said.
The IPD knows the name of the person and the family has been notified.
They expect to release the name on Wednesday as well.