Teenager may have ODed in custody
Published 1:30 am Friday, May 15, 2026
A 17-year-old Oak Harbor boy who was charged with kidnapping a girl earlier this year is now accused of possessing fentanyl while being held in the Island County Juvenile Detention Center on another case in March, according to court documents.
The police report states that the teen possibly overdosed while in custody and was transported to the hospital.
Prosecutors charged the teen in Island County Superior Court May 14 with possession of a controlled substance while in a correctional facility.
The boy was being held in the juvenile detention center on March 11 in connection with an earlier case unrelated to the alleged kidnapping. The report by Coupeville Marshal Bo Miller states that staff members in the juvenile detention center found a comb covered with a white powdery substance inside a book in the boy’s cell.
A corrections deputy used a TacticID device to test the substance, which showed a presumptive positive for mercaptopurine — a leukemia drug — and methylthioamphetamine, a designer drug with amphetamine-like properties, according to the report.
The staff searched the teenager but didn’t find anything else.
A couple of hours later, however, the marshal heard a radio dispatch of a youth who possibly overdosed in the juvenile facility. An ambulance responded and brought the boy to the hospital for treatment.
According to the report, during an event at the facility, the boy was seen concealing something in his hand. A staff member told him to drop what he was holding, but the teen placed the plastic bag in his mouth, chewed and tried to swallow it, the reports states. Shortly afterward, the boy appeared to be displaying symptoms of an overdose.
Miller used the TacticID device to test the contents of the plastic bag. Targeting different areas of the substance, he found that the device showed a range of pharmaceutical substances, from stimulants to designer drugs, the report states. He suspected that fentanyl was also present since it is often mixed with other drugs.
The substance was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for testing. Earlier this month, the crime lab reported that it tested positive for fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.
In the alleged abduction case, prosecutors charged the boy on May 1 with one count of kidnapping in the second degree. He was accused of holding a 15-year-old girl against her will if what may be the first case in case in recent county history in which a teenager was charged with kidnapping, according to the prosecutor.
