The Denton Police Department announced Tuesday that it has arrested an 18-year-old man for murder after investigating a fatal fentanyl overdose.
On Sept. 25, 2023, officers were dispatched to the 7500 block of Barrymore Road for an overdose call. The unconscious victim, identified as 17-year-old Ryan Erwin, was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased, according to a Denton PD news release.
During the investigation, detectives discovered evidence that 18-year-old Zakkary McReynolds sold fentanyl to the victim on the morning of his death. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Erwin’s cause of death as combined fentanyl and diphenhydramine toxicity.
On Tuesday, Denton PD, the Denton County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Marshals Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force arrested McReynolds on a murder warrant without incident in the 700 block of Campbell Lane.
This is the third fentanyl-related murder arrest in Denton since a new state law went into effect on Sept. 1, 2023, that created a criminal offense of murder for supplying fentanyl that results in death.
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