Authorities link methadone to crash that killed 2
CARLTON — Authorities say they found methadone in the vehicle of a Cloquet woman charged with killing two Carlton County highway workers.
A criminal complaint charging Vanessa Rae Brigan with vehicular homicide says bottles of prescribed liquid methadone and syringes were found on the scene of the three-vehicle crash Monday on Highway 210 near Cromwell.
The complaint says Brigan and a passenger received the methadone at the Brainerd clinic and were returning to Cloquet. Treatment professionals say methadone prescribed through treatment clinics is meant to orally ingested, not injected.
The Duluth News Tribune reports Brigan's vehicle crossed the centerline and hit a pickup truck. The pickup veered into oncoming traffic and sideswiped another vehicle. Two county workers in the pickup, Zachary Gamache and Mitchell Lingren, were thrown from the truck and died at the scene.