Greensburg police arrest 2 men in woman's overdose death

Greensburg police arrested two area men Wednesday for allegedly providing a fentanyl-laced heroin dose that killed a 48-year-old woman last summer.

Julian V. Cancro, 37, of Greensburg, and Matthew T. Caughey, 46, of Youngwood, were charged with drug delivery resulting in death in connection with the Aug. 30 death of Darice R. Franke, 48.

Police were called to Cancro’s apartment on the 500 block of Highland Avenue at 4:22 a.m. Aug. 29 for a report of a woman who had overdosed. Detective Sgt. John Swank said Franke was “unresponsive” on the bathroom floor with two empty stamp bags of heroin and a hypodermic needle lying nearby.

Franke, who has lived in Greensburg and Jeannette, was taken by ambulance to Excela Health Westmoreland hospital in Greensburg where she died the next day, Swank reported.

District Judge Chris Flanigan issued arrest warrants Wednesday morning and Cancro and Caughey were taken into custody about 1:15 p.m., police said.

In addition to two empty stamp bags of heroin collected at the scene, court documents said that Cancro, who reported the overdose, provided investigators with 10 full stamp bags of heroin that were inside his residence.

Swank said the complaints were filed after investigators reviewed text messages exchanged between Cancro and Caughey the day of the overdose, plus after interviews with both men revealed that they drove together to Wilkinsburg to purchase the heroin that Franke ingested.

Swank filed the complaints after the state police confirmed Franke died of an overdose of fentanyl contained in the heroin.

Flanigan ordered both men held in the county prison after they failed to post $100,000 bail.