A 45-year-old Denton woman is facing a murder charge following a Denton Police Department investigation into a fatal fentanyl overdose.
On March 25, officers responded to the report of an unconscious person inside an encampment in the 1900 block of Brinker Road. The victim, 38-year-old Shaun Cross, was declared deceased on scene, according to a news release from the Denton Police Department. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Cross’s cause of death as fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity.
During the investigation, Denton PD detectives discovered evidence that Ryan Michelle Warner sold narcotics containing fentanyl to the victim prior to his death, according to police. On Tuesday, Denton PD arrested Warner on a murder warrant in the 800 block of West Hickory Street. Warner was booked into Denton County Jail with bail set at $500,000.
This is the fourth fentanyl 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, according to Denton PD.
