SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (WHBL) -- Two men are facing homicide charges for allegedly buying the heroin that lead to an overdose death in Cedar Grove last year.
25-year-old Brian Splivalo from Kiel and 30-year-old Jason Makar of Random Lake have been charged with first degree reckless homicide in connection with the death of 34-year-old Jessie Prochaska of Cedar Grove in September of 2015.
According to the criminal complaint, deputies were called to an apartment in Cedar Grove for a report of an unresponsive person inside. When medical personnel arrived, they found Prochaska already dead at the scene. Another resident of the apartment told police he had left for a wine festival that morning and had been texting Prochaska, but she stopped responding about noon.
The witness told police that a man he knew as Brian had been staying in the apartment with Prochaska and that they were both there when he left in the morning. When he returned, Brian was gone and he had found the victim dead in the bathroom.
A police search of the apartment found heroin, hydrocodone and paraphernalia. They also found a pair of cell phones which did not belong to the victim. Fingerprints taken from the items allegedly pointed to both Nakar and Splivalo.
Detectives spent the next several months trying to piece together the day's events, going through several interviews, until a public works employee came forward with a cell phone that she'd found in a city sewer. Phone records found on that phone showed phone calls between Splivalo and the victim, and showed that they had been in contact the day of her overdose. Further searches of the victim's Facebook messages show conversations between her and Makar, and discussed doing drugs on the day of her death.
Police eventually determined though the evidence gathered that Makar and Splivalo went to Milwaukee to purchase those drugs, and then Splivalo and the victim got high. Police say Splivalo woke up to find the victim dead and then left the apartment with her cell phone because he was worried evidence would be found on the phone that would point to him.
Splivalo and Makar are both free on $75,000 cash bonds and will be back in court for a preliminary hearing April 27th.