Dr. Joely Nelson slumped from a living room chair onto a pillow on the hearth of the fireplace, her face scorched from the heat, her dead body riddled with drugs. A fellow anesthesiologist found her there after Nelson, 44, failed to show up for work at a Vail Valley Medical Center facility. He said she was depressed, upset about having a long-term disease and had killed herself.
Avon police and a medical examiner agreed that she died, probably intentionally, of a drug overdose. The hospital's safety manager told police she doubted the syringes and pills around her could have come from Vail Valley.
But a hospital report to the state showed Nelson had removed fentanyl, a powerful narcotic, and another drug illegally. The autopsy found cocaine and narcotic drugs in her blood. She died with old and new puncture marks in her legs.
Read Full Article »