SUN Staff Report
5/28/09
Although a deceased 21-year-old Chama man was found with needle track marks on his arm and a syringe in his shoe, the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Department has not concluded that the man died of a drug overdose.
Miguel Valdivies was found May 21 at about 7:30 a.m. by his mother Annette Valdivies in the bedroom of their home, deputy Marvin Mercure said. A bag of what was suspected to be heroin was also found in his room, Mercure said. The substance was sent to the state crime lab for testing.
Until the state Office of the Medical Investigator returns toxicology test results in about six weeks, Valdivies’ official cause of death won’t be known, hence the Department’s reluctance to characterize the death as an overdose, Mercure said.
Annette Valdivies said she had last seen her son at 10 p.m. the night before he died, when she said he was doing fine. Valdivies worked as a laborer for a construction contractor, she said.