Crime & Safety
Police: Heroin-Related Crimes, Deaths on Rise
Crystal Lake Police Department Chief Eugene Lowry said easy access to the drug and the low cost of heroin could be part of the problem.
The charge of drug-induced homicide brought Tuesday against a 23-year-old Lake in the Hills man is the third case of its kind in the past 18 months for the Crystal Lake Police Department, police officials said.
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On Tuesday, Philip D. Neumann, 23, of 106 Dear Path, Lake in the Hills, was charged .
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Hopman died Jan. 30 and police allege that during a drug deal on Jan. 29, Neumann provided Hopman with the heroin that led to his death.
The Crystal Lake Police Department has seen an increase in heroin overdoses and criminal activity by those who use heroin, Deputy Police Chief Eugene Lowery told Lake in the Hills Patch in an email response Tuesday.
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"It seems in part to be the result of lower costs for the drug and (because) it's readily available," he said.
The has reported similar issues with heroin.
An 18-year-old Lake in the Hills woman died of a heroin overdose last August. Lake in the Hills police told Patch for an article in October that more teens and adults in their 20s were using the drug.
A conviction on a drug-induced homicide charge carries between a six- and 30-year prison sentence.
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