Ripon woman charged with first-degree reckless homicide for 2020 overdose death of her partner

FOND DU LAC – A Ripon woman has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide for the 2020 fentanyl death of her partner.

Carla Endeward, 54, is charged in connection with a March 5, 2020, overdose death, as well as an overdose that occurred at her home in April. In addition to first-degree reckless homicide, she faces charges of maintaining a drug trafficking place, possessing narcotic drugs, possessing drug paraphernalia, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and three counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

Endeward is currently imprisoned at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. Her initial court appearance is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The following information is from a criminal complaint:

On March 5, 2020, police were called to Ripon Medical Center after a death. Endeward and the victim arrived at the emergency room around 2:50 a.m. The victim was pulseless and not breathing, and nurses tried to revive him but were unsuccessful.

An autopsy found that the victim had died of an accidental overdose of cocaine, fentanyl, flualprazolam and isotonitazene.

Officers were familiar with both Endeward and the victim from previous police contact. At the time, Endeward was on probation for manufacturing or delivering heroin. 

Investigators interviewed Endeward at the hospital. She said earlier that night, she and the victim had dinner and afterward the victim left their shared apartment. Endeward said she did not know where he went. She fell asleep on the couch and did not hear him when he came home. She said she also slept through multiple missed calls.

She found him later that night passed out on the bed. When police asked Endeward why she did not call 911 immediately upon finding the victim, she said she could not locate her phone.

Police knew the victim was a drug user, and during the interview asked Endeward if he had been using again. Endeward said he was not to her knowledge. She said he had returned to Ripon from rehab in October 2019 and was no longer doing hard drugs. Endeward also said she would drive the victim to an opioid addiction clinic in Milwaukee.

That day, police conducted a search warrant at the residence where Endeward and the victim lived. They found drug paraphernalia, including two crack pipes, marijuana pipes with residue, a digital scale, a grinder, THC gel containers and several prescriptions for the victim, his mother, his deceased sister and his niece.

Police received a call from a friend of the victim on the same day, who said the victim "never injects himself with drugs, and that he has Carla do it." The friend of the victim also "said that he has personal knowledge that Carla was always VICTIM 1's heroin supplier," according to the complaint.

The victim's friend also told police "a known heroin supplier in Ripon" had been seen at Endeward's and the victim's apartment a few times in recent weeks, which was information he heard from Endeward's downstairs neighbor.

Endeward told police the alleged heroin supplier was a friend of her son's who recently got off probation and "happened to stop by" her apartment.

Police also interviewed Endeward's downstairs neighbor the day of the victim's death. The neighbor said he was asleep early that morning when he heard banging on the steps and a knock at his door. Endeward was crying and visibly upset, and asked him to help her move the victim to the victim's vehicle so she could take him to the hospital. The neighbor asked if the victim was breathing, and Endeward said yes. He said he asked why she did not call 911, and Endeward said it would be quicker for her to take him to the hospital herself.

On March 10, police spoke to the victim's niece. Police knew the niece was a drug user, and recently one of the officers used Narcan when she overdosed on heroin.

The victim's niece told police that he had borrowed her car March 2, three days before his death, to travel to the opioid addiction clinic in Milwaukee. She told police that when the victim was using heroin, he would also travel to Milwaukee to get his drugs.

Also, a week before the victim died, the victim's niece said she had administered Narcan to him. On that day, the victim's niece said Endeward was supposed to go over to her home, but was more than an hour late. Thinking something was going on, the victim's niece went to Endeward's and the victim's apartment, where she found the victim passed out and Endeward trying to revive him. Endeward did not know how to perform CPR to try to revive the victim, the witness said, and "was slapping him and throwing water on him." The witness said she wanted to call 911, but Endeward would not let her, alluding to illegal items in the house.

Endeward was arrested April 23 on a probation warrant. On Aug. 29, she told police during an interview from the Fond du Lac County Jail that she had been to Milwaukee "a couple" times to purchase drugs, and that she had gone with the victim and his niece. She told investigators she had purchased pink heroin.

Investigators asked Endeward if she had been under the influence of drugs at the night the victim died, and she said she had not been. They also asked why she had not called 911 immediately upon finding her phone. She said she was trying to do CPR and get hold of the victim's niece to get Narcan.

Endeward told police she and the victim had traveled to the Milwaukee clinic during the day on March 4, but the victim returned that night without her.

Fond du Lac County Medical Examiner Adam Covach determined that the victim's overdose death was likely caused by taking drugs on two separate occasions on the same day.

A second victim overdosed at Endeward's residence on both April 9 and April 17 of 2020. He told police he had done drugs Endeward provided to him, including the pink heroin. He said he had been using drugs for a long period of his life and had "never seen anything like this before."

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.