Suicide solution?

[May 2nd, 2007] A WW review of police reports in the highly publicized cocaine-overdose death of Lincoln High School senior Kraig Crow reveals that friends and family suspected from the start he may have meant to kill himself.

Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Norm Frink says it doesn't matter from a legal perspective whether Crow's death was an accident or suicide. Five people, including two Lincoln students, pleaded guilty and face jail time for providing the drugs to Crow. Another could do 20 years in prison under a federal law aimed at dealers who cause death.

"The point is that the drugs were sold and there was a death," Frink says.

But the possibility of a suicide is important for two other reasons. Crisis counselors say acknowledging suicides when they happen can help save other troubled teens. And it suggests Lincoln High isn't simply a drug pusher's paradise­—dealers in the case told police that Crow was persistent in hunting down and buying the overdose that killed him.

Police records show considerable doubt at the outset that Crow's death was an accident, from the moment Crow's parents contacted them in a panic Aug. 21, their son's 19th birthday. After dinner at a restaurant in which he was "unusually affectionate" to his mother, Crow, who suffered from depression, had disappeared with three bottles of prescription painkillers.

Crow's parents told police their son had been "withdrawn and belligerent" since his girlfriend left for college a week before, and had started drinking more heavily. The night before his death, Crow walked off his stock-boy job at Strohecker's Market with no notice.

Police immediately labeled the case a suicide. But Dr. Larry Lewman, a state forensic pathologist, called the manner of death "undetermined" in his report several weeks later.

"My personal opinion is, it was an accident, but there wasn't enough information to really conclude that," Lewman tells WW. He says the level of cocaine in Crow's blood was among the highest he's ever seen—1,985 nanograms per milliliter.

Jill Eiland, a spokeswoman for the Crow family, says Crow's parents remain convinced the death was an accident despite police reports that night suggesting they suspected otherwise. They were worried about his mental state. They weren't alone.

After talking to Crow's parents, a police officer was pulled aside by one of Crow's friends. The friend said Crow's ex-girlfriend had received a text message from Crow telling her "not to feel responsible for what he's going to do."

Edmund Coutan, the Lincoln student who sold the coke to Crow, became convinced Crow meant to kill himself. Another student, Alex DiFranco, told police Coutan called him repeatedly that night, sounding "very worried" and asking if 6 grams of coke was enough to kill someone. DiFranco told him it was.

DiFranco was sentenced to 12 months in jail for putting Coutan in touch with another dealer to buy the coke that killed Crow. Some Lincoln students wore "Free Franco" shirts to school until administrators banned them last week.

High-school kids determined to die will resort to extremes, including fiery motorcycle crashes and massive overdoses, says Mike Miller, director of Dare to Live, a teen-suicide prevention program in Vancouver, Wash.

"From 23 years' experience doing suicide prevention, does a cocaine overdose strike me as odd?" Miller asks. "The answer is no."