State Police: Man found dead in Knox woods died of overdose
— Graph from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
The number of deaths from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, has climbed far faster than overdose deaths caused by other drugs, as charted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse from 1999 to 2022.
KNOX — State police have closed the investigation into the death of Anthony Moretti, a 35-year-old man from Albany whose body was discovered in Knox months after his death, determining that he had died from an overdose of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Trooper Stephanie O’Neill told The Enterprise this week that Moretti’s official cause of death is cardiac arrhythmia attributable to the drugs in his system, and that the manner of death is “undetermined circumstances.”
Fentanyl is an exceptionally potent opioid that can kill people even in small amounts. Often, victims are not aware that they’re taking fentanyl as it’s cut into other drugs.
Eighty-two percent of the county’s overdose deaths in 2022 involved fentanyl, and the number of overdose deaths overall more than tripled since 2015, according to Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.
Moretti’s body was discovered in the woods near Villeneuve Drive by a Schoharie County resident at the bottom of steep terrain in July, but police believe he had actually died sometime last fall, based on the condition of the body. Moretti was not publicly identified until late last month, after police had carried out DNA testing.
The area where he was found is near the Bozen Kill, which O’Neill had told The Enterprise previously is a local attraction that draws people in for outdoor activities like swimming and fishing.
