{"id":31194,"date":"2023-10-10T21:19:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T03:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/inmate-who-died-at-la-plata-county-jail-had-fentanyl-in-system\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:36:09","slug":"inmate-who-died-at-la-plata-county-jail-had-fentanyl-in-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/inmate-who-died-at-la-plata-county-jail-had-fentanyl-in-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Inmate who died at La Plata County Jail had fentanyl in system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata County jail has housed inmates from Archuleta County for more than two years. Archuleta County has <a href=&quot;https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/173100&quot;>paid La Plata County more than $250,000 annually since 2017<\/a> to house its inmates,<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango man who died while in custody at the La Plata County Jail had fentanyl in his blood at the time of death, according to an autopsy report and a forensic pathologist.<\/p>\n

Despite the presence of fentanyl in his system, Daniel Foard, 32, died from acute peritonitis as a result of a perforated duodenal ulcer, which is a hole in his bowel that allowed an infection to form in his abdomen and pus to accumulate in the belly, said Mike Arnall, who performed the autopsy.<\/p>\n

According to a toxicology report, Foard had 2.6 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl in his blood. That is enough to potentially cause death, Arnall said, \u201calthough we frequently see levels much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

The more concerning issue, from a health standpoint, was the duodenal ulcer, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan a person die with a level of 2.6 (ng\/ml)? The answer\u2019s yes,\u201d Arnall said. \u201cIt was my sense that the greater problem was a belly full of pus. \u2026 As the surgeon would say, that\u2019s a surgical problem with a surgical cure \u2013 meaning there\u2019s only one way you\u2019re going to cure that, and that\u2019s with surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnall said it takes an average of 35 hours for fentanyl to leave the bloodstream, but that can vary from person to person. Conservatively speaking, it can take up to 48 hours, he said.<\/p>\n

Foard entered the jail on Aug. 11 on warrants, failure to appear and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, according to a jail supervisor. He was found unresponsive in his cell shortly after 9:30 p.m. Aug. 16 \u2013 five days after entering the jail \u2013 and was pronounced dead shortly before 1 a.m. Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

Given the timeline, Arnall said he wonders how Foard was able to consume fentanyl while in jail. But he said that is outside his purview.<\/p>\n

The answer does not change the fact that Foard died as a result of a personal health issue, not fentanyl use, he said.<\/p>\n

The information obtained as part of the autopsy and toxicology report was given to law enforcement, and it is their obligation to use the information to help inform their investigation, Arnall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone\u2019s got to ask a lot of questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office deferred questions about the death to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which is overseeing the death investigation.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the CBI said the case remained under investigation as of Tuesday. She declined to comment further, including about possible fentanyl use in the jail and whether jail staff responded appropriately to Foard\u2019s health needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHoping to present the case to the DA soon,\u201d the spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office spokesman Chris Burke said illegal drugs have been introduced into the jail in the past. The sheriff\u2019s office tries to be proactive in preventing the introduction of contraband, including using a body scanner, he said.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office also has an \u201camnesty box\u201d that allows inmates to part with illegal substances prior to entering the jail to avoid additional charges should they be caught with the substances inside the jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnonymous items have been left in the container quite often,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite drugs in blood, coroner rules cause of death is health related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[255,2025,28,1024,1901,1194],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-death-and-dying","tag-fentanyl","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-jail","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81353,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31194\/revisions\/81353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31194"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}