Delaware

Delaware officials recommend ways to reduce fatal overdoses after 2 years of decreases

Published

3 months ago

October 26, 2025

Delaware officials recommend ways to reduce fatal overdoses after 2 years of decreases

This story was produced by Spotlight Delaware as part of a partnership with Delaware Online/The News Journal. For more about Spotlight Delaware, visit www.spotlightdelaware.org.

A state board charged with examining opioid overdoses found that expanding treatment options, police officer training and shelter access could reduce the number of deaths for Delawareans battling mental illnesses along with addiction.

The Delaware Overdose Fatality Review Commission, which does not have public meetings, released its annual report on Oct. 21, reviewing a sample of 103 overdoses from 2022 to create recommendations for how state leaders can best address opioid deaths in the First State.

The state saw 338 fatal drug overdoses last year, a roughly 36% decrease compared to 2023. For years, Delaware ranked as one of the hardest-hit states in the nation on a per-capita basis, but the figures represent a second straight year of decreases and the lowest annual total since 2017.

In the commission’s report, it conceded its sample is not perfect, and that there were obstacles in securing more complete data. One of those obstacles, the report said, was securing data from the state’s largest hospital.

“Notably, data from ChristianaCare was unavailable for this report and the 2022 dataset, which further limits the completeness of the overall information,” the report said.

The commission’s director, Julia Lawes, said in an email the hospital did provide the data, but not in a “timely manner” due to a third-party service provider. However, Lawes said the issue had been addressed and measures were put in place to prevent it from happening in the future.

The report also said there were 58 people excluded from the data because the commission was only able to obtain their death certificates and limited information about their circumstances. The report speculates this could mean these individuals did not interact with various medical providers or law enforcement prior to their deaths.

According to the report, the average person who died from an overdose in 2022 was a 42-year-old white male, and most people had high school diplomas and worked in construction.

The data also said that nearly 92% of people who died of a fatal overdose had fentanyl in their systems.

What did the commission recommend?

One of the commission’s first recommendations was that Delaware providers expand treatment options and improve follow-ups for those battling mental illnesses as well as addiction.

The report said services in the state can be “fragmented and disjointed,” and it recommends expanding the continuum of care to better serve patients. When asked about whether that meant stronger communication between providers or consolidating their services, Lawes said it could be both.

“Ultimately, we’d love to see improved care coordination across the board throughout the state, so people can more easily access the full range of services they need,” Lawes said.

Another recommendation from the commission includes improving training for law enforcement when it comes to interacting with those who may be struggling with addiction and have a mental illness.

This training, the report said, could include partnering with different diversion programs that keep people out of the justice system and guide people to the appropriate care.

An additional recommendation included expanding access to shelter services for people who are homeless. According to the report, nearly half the people in the sample were either unhoused or housing-insecure, meaning they had no identified residence.

The report stressed its support of “housing first” models that support placing people who are homeless into permanent living arrangements.

But the report also said that model could face “implementation challenges” following an executive order that bars federal agencies from funding programs that use housing first policies.

Data from the commission’s sample found that of those who were homeless prior to their death, 10% had accessed treatment or services through a shelter, with the lowest shelter use in Kent and Sussex counties.

The report pointed to a lack of public transportation in the two counties and recommended creating dedicated shuttle routes for “high-need” areas and partnering with ride-share companies to provide vouchers for trips to medical or treatment appointments.

“These measures could help ensure that individuals are not denied access to life-saving treatment and recovery support simply because they lack transportation,” the report said.

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Delaware

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

Published

2 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.

MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.

Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.

A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.

Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.

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Delaware

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

Published

14 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.

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Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.

As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.

During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.

“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”

Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.

“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”

Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.

“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”

Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.

Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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