This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Newly unsealed search warrants may establish a connection between two young teen boys who recently died in Park City and the synthetic opioid "pink."
Police are investigating whether the 13-year-old boys died from ingesting the drug, which is also known as "pinky" or "U-47700."
Grant Seaver died Sept. 11, and his best friend, Ryan Ainsworth, died on Sept. 13 — each at his respective home. The boys attended Treasure Mountain Junior High School in Park City.
On Sept. 13 — the day that police announced the two boys had died — a teen girl told officers that she had helped two other teenage boys obtain "legal" drugs that were reportedly bought online.
The warrants, which were filed on Sept. 13 and sought access to several laptops in Park City-area homes, indicate that one of the teen boys told a therapist that they were buying the drug "U-47700."
The teen girl told police that she had the packages sent to her home because her friends' mail was "screened for drugs by their parents," according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Monday.
Sometime in August, the girl received a package from Shanga, China, which contained "a clear bag with a white powder substance," she told police.
She gave the substance to her two friends, according to court records.
An investigator wrote in the affidavit that the older teens gave the substance to two juvenile friends. The warrant does not, however, mention the boys' deaths or say whether Ainsworth or Seaver ever received the drug from that source.
Park City Police have said they are waiting until toxicology results are completed — which could take up to eight weeks — before confirming if there is a connection between the boys' deaths and pink.
Police began investigating a link between the deaths and the drugs based on social media communications, according to Park City School District officials. Police officials were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
Police in Park City have said that pink has caused 50 overdose deaths nationwide, two of which were in Salt Lake and Iron counties.
On Sept. 7, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced it was temporarily classifying U-47700 as an illegal Schedule 1 drug "to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety."
A notice on the DEA's website said any final order regarding the drug might not be effective before Oct. 7.
The DEA defines Schedule 1 drugs as substances or chemicals "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."
Twitter: @jm_miller