One of five women who overdosed on suspected fentanyl in a Bergen County mall last week has died, according to her family and friends.
Michelle Kerry Edoo, 29, of Bergenfield, was among the five coworkers found unconscious at Shops at Riverside mall in Hackensack on March 15. The women were found in the lower level parking garage, police said.
The women were revived using Narcan and CPR and four of the five were taken to a local hospital for treatment, according to a statement from the Hackensack Police Department. The fifth woman refused transport.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office has scheduled a Friday afternoon press conference “to announce an investigation into an overdose death in Hackensack as well as the recent surge in fentanyl-related overdoses in Bergen County.”
Fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid, has surged in overdose cases nationally and surpassed heroin as the leading cause of overdose deaths in New Jersey in 2018, according to state Office of the Medical Examiner data.
In 2019, the most recent year with confirmed overdose death information, New Jersey had 2,248 deaths attributed to fentanyl. Essex County had the most fentanyl deaths that year with 320, followed by Camden (285), Middlesex (168) and Ocean (143) counties.
Edoo, the mother of a 9-year-old girl, died three days after she was found, according to a GoFundMe page in her name.
A full-time employee at the mall’s Cheesecake Factory, Edoo was also enrolled in nursing school and passed an exam within the past two weeks, the GoFundMe says.
Edoo’s co-workers said she came into work on her days off “just to check in on her friends she hadn’t seen during the last shift.”
“She was the one always ready to dance to some music and have fun,” the GoFundMe says. “Most of all, she was always there for you. We are so thankful to have known her and thankful to have been a part of her life.”
Money from the fundraiser, which had raised about $5,000 as of Friday, will go to help Edoo’s daughter and family.
A memorial service is set for 1 p.m. Saturday in New Milford, according to her obituary.
ABC7ny.com reported the coworkers were between the ages of 29 to 41. Officials told the news station the women thought they were ingesting cocaine and did not know the drug was laced with fentanyl.
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