On a chilly and cloudy afternoon in January, law enforcement officers found a young woman lifeless inside a Columbia apartment.
Investigators saw symptoms of a drug overdose death, but lab testing did not detect any drugs in her system. The Richland County Coroner’s Office ruled her manner of death undetermined.
Now, a powdery material that police had collected from her apartment could provide clues to the woman’s final moments. It could also signal the emergence in the Carolinas of a new “designer opioid” that public health experts say has been linked to a growing number of deaths nationwide…