The story of the arrest of an accused drug dealer on Tuesday in Burrell Township offers a picture of how pervasive the heroin/fentanyl epidemic is.
Westmoreland County detectives had tracked 21-year-old Dylan Blair of Saltsburg to the Days Inn outside of Blairsville. He was wanted for selling heroin to 38-year-old Michelle Spillar of Derry, who died from an overdose on the day after Christmas. As police were serving the arrest warrant on Blair on Tuesday, they found another man in the midst of an overdose in the hotel room’s bathroom. The deputies were in the process of moving the overdose victim to administer Narcan to him when he revived and became combative with them. State police and Citizens Ambulance responded.
In the incident last December, two witnesses connected Blair to the death of Spillar, one saying that Blair had admitted selling the lethal dose of drugs and that he could be “looking at murder charges or something.”
Blair is being held at the Westmoreland County prison on charges of drug delivery resulting in death and three counts of manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to deliver. His bond is set at $700,000. He is also facing court action in Allegheny County for possession and driving under the influence in Monroeville in April.
