Lansdale woman charged in OD death

A Lansdale woman has been charged with homicide in the drug overdose death of another woman from fentanyl-laced heroin.

Julie Parker, 26, of the 800 block of Girard Avenue, was Isabella Lowrie's drug dealer, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said Friday.

Lowrie, 22, of Hatfield, died Nov. 25 from a combination of heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 40 to 50 times more deadly than street-level heroin, the District Attorney's Office said in a statement. Parker was charged with drug delivery resulting in death. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in state prison.

"Isabella Lowrie died by someone poisoning her, and that someone was a drug dealer," District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said. "I want to be loud and clear with this message: If you deal drugs like pills, heroin or fentanyl, and we can prove that the drugs you sold caused someone's death, you will be charged with homicide."

On Nov. 25, Hatfield police went to Lowrie's apartment on the 100 block of Market Street for a report of a medical emergency and found her on the bathroom floor, her face purple and her lips blue. Officers administered naloxone, a drug that can quickly reverse heroin overdoses, but it had no effect.

Through their investigation, detectives determined that earlier that day, Lowrie had sent text messages to Parker asking her to buy the drugs for her and saying she would pay $40.

According to court documents, on Dec. 2, Parker told police that after Lowrie contacted her, she bought the heroin in Philadelphia and with a friend delivered it to Lowrie.

Parker was arraigned Thursday night, and bail was set at $1 million. She was in custody at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility and faces a Feb. 9 preliminary hearing.

Two people were charged with the crime last year in Montgomery County: Gwendolyn Prebish, 27, of Hatboro, and Harold Burton, 36, of Philadelphia. Both face trial.