This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 15-year-old Park City boy was charged this week in connection to the September deaths of two 13-year-old boys in Park City.
The accused teen was charged in 3rd District Juvenile Court with distribution of a controlled or counterfeit substance, a second-degree felony, along with class A misdemeanor reckless endangerment. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Nov. 4.
Park City police announced the filing of the charges in a Wednesday afternoon news release, but did not provide any further details about how they made the connection between the 15-year-old and the deaths of friends Grant Seaver and Ryan Ainsworth.
Police also have not officially said how the two boys died, though they had been investigating whether the deaths had any connection to the synthetic opioid "Pink." Charging documents do not mention either of the dead boys by name.
Seaver died Sept. 11, and Ainsworth died on Sept. 13, each at his respective home. The boys attended Treasure Mountain Junior High School in Park City.
According to a search warrant affidavit, on Sept. 13 — the day that police announced the two boys had died — a teen girl told officers that she had helped the defendant and another teenage boy obtain "legal" drugs that were reportedly bought online.
The warrants, which were filed on Sept. 13 and sought access to laptops at the defendant's parents' homes, indicate that the second teen boy told a therapist that they were buying the drug "U-47700" — another name for Pink, also known as "Pinkie."
The teen girl told police that she had the packages sent to her home because her friends' mail was "screened for drugs by their parents," according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Monday.
The affidavit alleged that the defendant was the one who ordered the package online. Sometime in August, the girl received a package from Shanga, China, which contained "a clear bag with a white powder substance," she told police.
She gave the substance to the two friends who had asked her to order it, according to the search warrant affidavit.
The 15-year-old boy's juvenile record shows he had entered into a plea in abeyance for an April instance of possession of a controlled substance charge, according to information from the Utah Courts.
Police began investigating a link between the deaths and the drug Pink based on social media communications, according to Park City School District officials.
Police in Park City have said that pink has caused 50 overdose deaths nationwide, two of which were in Salt Lake and Iron counties.
On Sept. 7, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced it was temporarily classifying U-47700 as an illegal Schedule 1 drug "to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety."
A notice on the DEA's website said any final order regarding the drug might not be effective before Oct. 7.
The DEA defines Schedule 1 drugs as substances or chemicals "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.