Mystic woman's death in suspected overdose hints of heroin rebound

Melissa A. Short was happy to be free after spending five months in jail on narcotics charges followed by 45 days in a rehabilitation program.

The 32-year-old Mystic woman, who had long, blond hair and was called "Sunshine" by her loved ones, was released Friday morning, Sept. 16, from the Merritt Hall rehabilitation program at Connecticut Valley Hospital.

Walking out of the Middletown facility, she couldn't wait to smoke a cigarette. But she told her mother, Patricia "Patty" Short, that she would never again touch heroin.

"She said, 'Let me quit one thing at a time,''' said Patricia Short.

Less than 24 hours later, Melissa Short was dead of a suspected heroin overdose, leaving behind her 12-year-old daughter and her heartbroken family and friends.

"She's just another tragic casualty of heroin," said her attorney, John D. Maxwell of Glastonbury.

A return of heroin

Heroin, which waned in popularity after crack cocaine became the recreational drug of choice, has returned to the region with a vengeance over the past few years, according to law enforcement authorities.

It's cheap, it's potent and it's prevalent.

"It seems like every time we turn around we're picking up somebody with 500 or 600 bags," said Paul J. Narducci, a senior assistant state's attorney in New London who prosecutes many of the area's major drug cases. He said heroin has been coming into the area through New York and Hartford.

The drug originates in South America, where it is shipped in kilo-sized packages, according to the Statewide Narcotics Task Force, a squad of state and local police that investigates drug trafficking. The heroin is divided into smaller packages and then into glassine bags for street-level sales.

On the street, heroin is sold in bags and bundles. Locally, the price of a 100-200 mg bag is approximately $4 to $7, according to the task force. A bundle comprises 10 bags. Addicts typically use five or more bags a day, injecting the drug with a needle or snorting it through the nose.

Melissa Short did not like needles and preferred to snort the drug, according to her longtime boyfriend, Jeff Chapman, who was with her when she died. On that Friday night, a friend let Short and Chapman use his apartment at 199 Maple Ave. in Montville so that they could spend some time alone. They were planning to drive to Massachusetts the next day for the Wormtown Music Festival.

At 5:52 a.m. Saturday, Chapman called 911 from the Maple Avenue apartment to report that Short was not breathing. She could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is awaiting the results of toxicology tests before ruling on the cause and manner of Short's death. State police are investigating.

Patricia Short said her daughter had been adamant that she would not use heroin again. She said there could be some other explanation for her death.

"I will not believe anything until I see the autopsy report, and neither will my husband," she added.

Melissa Short's attorney and police who are familiar with the case said Melissa may have taken her regular dose of heroin, but having been off the drug for several months, her body would have not been able to tolerate the same amount.

"It's frequently a dangerous time when people are coming out of rehab," said Naomi M. Mendelovicz, a psychiatrist on the medical staff at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London. She said when people overdose, the body's ability to breathe is suppressed.

"It's painless, but you eventually suffocate to death," she said.

If the person receives medical treatment in time, the effects of a heroin overdose can be reversed by a medication called Narcan.

'Out of control'

In a phone interview Thursday, Chapman said he and Short told each other, "I love you" before going to sleep that night. He would not discuss whether he or Short used drugs that night, though he admitted they had used heroin together in the past. He said they had lost some people in their lives and had other problems from which they were trying to escape.

"You start dabbling here and there with things, and next thing you know everything's out of control," he said.

Chapman said Short started asking for drugs as soon as she was released that Friday morning. He said she had been forced to stop using following her arrest in March but wasn't ready to quit.

Asked if there was anything the public should know about heroin, he said, "Don't follow us, because this is what happens.

"If people think they can do this a couple of times and 'It won't be me,' they're wrong," Chapman said. "If that drug gets its hooks into you, there's no looking back. I just want people to know, they're not stronger than it. The thing is stronger than you. People should think about it before they go ahead and try it."

Heroin had cost Melissa Short her freedom, her home, custody of her daughter and probably her life. According to court documents, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force targeted Short in January 2011 after learning she was selling heroin from her rented home at 8 Golden Road in Mystic. An undercover officer, posing as a buyer, called her on Jan. 18 to arrange a purchase. The police recorded the call, during which Short agreed to meet the purported buyer at her house.

The undercover officer, equipped with an electronic transmitting device and under surveillance by other officers, went to the modest two-bedroom ranch where Short lived with Chapman and their daughter. Short made a phone call, and a man arrived with a bag of heroin, which Short sold to the undercover officer.

On Feb. 15, the same undercover officer made another controlled purchase from Short. The officer met her at the Golden Road home, and the two then drove in the officer's car to the Gales Ferry home of 28-year-old Timothy J. Paprocki to get the heroin.

Paprocki provided the drugs inside wax paper bags stamped with a BMW logo. Short kept a portion of the money the undercover officer had given her and turned over the rest to Paprocki.

Their investigation complete, the task force obtained an arrest warrant for Short, which they served her at home on March 3. Chapman was away at his job on a fishing boat at the time. Police arrested Short and took her daughter away, leaving a cat and dog to be picked up the next day by a relative.

Short's parents took temporary custody of their granddaughter. When Chapman returned from the fishing trip, the landlord informed him he had to move out.

Felonies, misdemeanors

Short, who had no prior criminal convictions, was charged with six felony crimes stemming from the undercover purchases. Police charged her with an additional felony and two misdemeanors after they searched the house with her consent and found, in her bedroom, a bag of marijuana, three prescription pills and a digital scale.

Around the same time in March, the police raided the Gales Ferry home of Short's supplier, Paprocki, and seized 1,500 bags of heroin (about a pound of the drug, packaged for sale) along with 15 grams of marijuana, a variety of prescription drugs and drug paraphernalia. He pleaded guilty to possession and sale of narcotics and was sentenced earlier this month to 54 months in prison.

Short was held at the York Correctional Institution until Aug. 3, when she was released to the rehabilitation program on a written promise to appear in court.

In Connecticut, defendants who are found to be drug-dependent at the time of their arrest can be released to treatment programs if the court finds they are likely to benefit from treatment. If they successfully complete the treatment, the court sometimes reduces the charges or dismisses them altogether.

Short's attorney, Maxwell, said Short was selling small amounts of heroin to support her own drug use. He said he had received a fax last week that indicated she had successfully completed the drug program, which had laid out an aftercare plan for follow up treatment.

Maxwell was supposed to meet with Short on Monday to discuss what would happen at her Oct. 6 court date. Instead, he said, Short's father called to tell him his daughter was dead.

"It's absolutely terrible," Maxwell said. "It's very unsettling."

k.florin@theday.com