Goodall died Dec. 24 from "acute methadone toxicity," said Salt Lake City police spokesman Jeff Bedard. That finding was made by a medical examiner who also labeled her death a case of prescription abuse, Bedard said.
Detectives are not saying how Goodall obtained the methadone, Bedard said, but her death was labeled as "prescription abuse."
Methadone-related deaths, like other types of prescription drug deaths, have increased dramatically in recent years, according to state Medical Examiner's Office statistics.
Goodall had suffered from a drug habit then tried sobriety and became a speaker in an anti-drug campaign led by Utah's first lady, Mary Kay Hunstman.
Goodall married Dec. 23. Her new husband found her dead in bed the following morning at the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City. Her family did not return Tribune phone calls seeking comment on Tuesday.
Shortly after her death, relatives acknowledged to The Tribune that Goodall had abused a variety of drugs, a habit that contributed to her losing custody of two children.
However, her grandmother, Sheila Anderson, insisted that no drugs were involved in her granddaughter's death, saying Goodall had stopped using.
Court records show Goodall had felony and misdemeanor convictions for theft and served time in prison in 2005.
Methadone is a pain-relieving narcotic. It is also prescribed to recovering heroin addicts to help ease symptoms of withdrawal. Methadone affects the same receptor in the brain that is affected by heroin but does not produce the same high.
Methadone and heroin also influence the area of the brain which controls respiration. Too much of the drugs can cause the brain to stop the respiratory system. What amount is too much depends on a person's genetics and how much tolerance he or she has built.
Bedard said he did not know whether Goodall had a prescription for methadone. Law enforcement and health officials in Utah say the prescription drug is among those traded illegally.
Chief State Medical Examiner Todd Grey said he cannot comment on specific cases, but said his office labels cases as "prescription abuse" when it has determined someone accidently took a drug incorrectly or had a history of intentionally misusing prescriptions.
"That evaluation would be made based on investigative information not anything done specifically from an autopsy," Grey said.
The medical examiner database lists 113 deaths in 2006 where methadone was a factor, up significantly from 26 such deaths in 2000.
The 2006 total could increase further as the medical examiner's office receives the results of pending toxicology tests.
Grey has said the increase in deaths from methadone and other prescription drugs has been driven by a combination of people taking too much medication to treat pain and by physicians prescribing too much medication. Methadone can be particularly deadly, health experts say, because it remains in the blood stream longer than most other opiates.
Lynn Webster, a Salt Lake City pain specialist who leads a campaign against prescription drug deaths, acknowledged deaths are sometimes caused by physician errors, but said: "Most of the time patients are overconsuming in order to alleviate pain."
