When a 52-year-old man was found dead in his South Knoxville, Tennessee apartment last October, the scene around him pointed to a drug overdose — but toxicology reports showed nothing but caffeine and nicotine in his system. Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, chief medical examiner for three counties in the greater Knoxville area, wasn’t satisfied. After decades of tracing the final moments of the dead, she knew an elusive killer was hiding in his blood. “Please look harder, please look harder” Mileusnic urged.
She sent the blood sample to two other labs before finding her answer: The victim had died after ingesting cychlorphine, a compound in a new class of opioids called orphines that are 10 times more powerful than fentanyl.
According to the New York Times, cychlorphine has claimed at least 50 other Knoxville-area lives since October. So far, 11 orphine variants have been found worldwide, and in at least 14 states. Just a few sand-sized grains kill swiftly, often before the body has time to produce the typical signs of an overdose. Cychlorphine’s novelty means it isn’t included in standard toxicology screens and high costs for additional testing means that orphine casualties — lumped together as “unspecified narcotics” on many death certificates — are likely underreported…