Autopsy: Teen’s Death An Accidental Drowning

By Andrew Gorosko

MONROE — An autopsy performed on the remains of a 17-year-old Newtown girl whose body was found floating in a small, shallow pond at a Monroe condominium complex on the Memorial Day weekend indicates that she died an accidental death caused by asphyxia due to drowning.

An August 16 amended death certificate filed by the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office indicates that Danielle Frances Jacobsen of 31 Tunnel Road, Newtown, died while submerged in a pond at the Northbrook Condominiums housing complex on Northbrook Drive, off Route 25. Ms Jacobsen was pronounced dead at 11:25 am on May 30.

The document adds that Ms Jacobsen’s ingestion of the hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT, constituted “a significant condition contributing to death, but not resulting in the underlying cause.”

On June 22, in Bridgeport Superior Court, a Texas man pleaded not guilty to drug charges stemming from his allegedly having provided the DMT to Ms Jacobsen before she died.

Quentin Ham, 22, of North Richland Hills, Texas, and formerly of Newtown, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of distribution of a hallucinogenic substance, which is a felony. Ham has elected to have a jury trial on the pending charges. Ham was arrested on the drug charges on June 7.

Ham is being held on $220,000 bail in Bridgeport Correctional Center on those charges, which were filed by Monroe police, as well as on other pending charges that were filed by Newtown police in connection with a May 30 incident near Newtown Shopping Village on Queen Street.

The Newtown charges against Ham are carrying a pistol without a permit, second-degree reckless endangerment, and second-degree breach of peace. Ham allegedly was distraught over Ms Jacobsen’s death and was threatening suicide in that incident.

Monroe police Captain Michael Flick said August 18 that Monroe police’s investigation into Ms Jacobsen’s death is now categorized as an “inactive” case pending any further information becoming available to police.

Currently, there is not enough information available to pursue any further criminal charges in the case, the captain said.

According to Monroe police Lieutenant Brian McCauley, “The [police] investigation determined that prior to her death, Danielle Jacobsen was provided with a hallucinogenic substance known as DMT at a gathering in a condominium near the pond where her body was found. It was further determined that Quentin Ham … was the person who distributed the DMT to those individuals at the condominium.” The police investigation showed that Mr Ham had transported the DMT from Texas.

The drug DMT is a potent hallucinogen that is classified as an illegal drug by the US Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

On May 30, Newtown police advised Monroe police that Ms Jacobsen’s family had reported her missing to Newtown police. Ms Jacobsen’s last known location had been small gathering of young people at 1 Still Meadow Circle, within the condo complex where she took a dose of DMT, allegedly supplied by Mr Ham.

During a police search of the area, Ms Jacobsen’s body was found in the pond located about 150 yards away from that condo.

Ms Jacobsen, a Newtown High School senior, had been scheduled to graduate with the Class of 2010 in June.