GUILTY IL - Melissa Best, 37, Round Lake Park, 15 April 2011

[panthera]

That is because you don't think like a junkie, or a drug addict...
it is a very selfish disease, and everything else goes out the window except for self-preservation to get you to the next fix...

So true, including one's own family......

MOO

 

[Claudette]

I think there's a good likelihood that Mr. Best didn't call at first because he didn't want his wife to get arrested. He's probably been covering up for her to family and some friends for a while. I still don't understand why this was put out there as a case of a "homebody" going about her innocent business and disappearing in Round Lake Park when I'm positive LE knew early on that it was "woman drives to Waukegan for drugs and isn't seen again." No wonder she was carrying cash.
My thoughts and condolences to her family.

(Wow, we've stayed at that Crossland extended stay motel (where she died) for a while both times my dh got stationed at Great Lakes. It's in a business park right off a state highway. Kind of isolated in that there are no residences or retail businesses adjoining it. I can see how someone could bring a body down to a van without being seen. I used to get spooked out taking my dog out at night. Didn't seem to be many low lifes around, but the bushes had some questionable trash in them.)

I can't envision the place. Driven down that way numerous times and can't think of where it is for some reason.

 

[Claudette]

Heroin as you all probably know, can kill really quickly especially if it is tainted. I can't remember if this was when I was in HS or right after I graduated but some kid from my town (a nice suburb, kind of pleasantvilleish) disappeared for a few days. They found him/her on the south side of Chicago with drug baggies still in hand. The stuff they took was tainted, killed them almost immediately.

 

[marycarney]

Heroin as you all probably know, can kill really quickly especially if it is tainted. I can't remember if this was when I was in HS or right after I graduated but some kid from my town (a nice suburb, kind of pleasantvilleish) disappeared for a few days. They found him/her on the south side of Chicago with drug baggies still in hand. The stuff they took was tainted, killed them almost immediately.

Heroin doesn't even need to be tainted to kill you.

When a person is addicted to prescription drugs, they are - for all intents and purposes - getting a 'known' dose. Take three Vicoden today - it's the same amount of drug as three Vicoden next week.

Your average heroin manufacturer is not real into quality control. Today's 10 milligrams could be tomorrow's sixty, or three.

 

[SurfieTX]

Clint and Melissa Best had been together for about 20 years — they were high school sweethearts.

So what consumed Clint Best Tuesday was how all of that has now been erased in a still-unexplained episode that investigators say likely involved the Round Lake Park mother of two taking a fatal drug overdose.

“I can’t even speculate where any of that came from,” Best said outside the couple’s Round Lake Park home.

Best said he is sure his wife did not have a drug problem.

http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/5035727-418/drug-death-theory-baffles-husband.html

 

[CuriousHousewife]

I have a friend who was abusing vicodin for almost a year before her husband noticed something was "off". They are a close family and she's also a "homebody". Just sayin' ~ just because he doesn't believe it or acknowledge doesn't mean it isn't so.

 

[nothingnew]

What I don't understand is - if she OD'd at this person's home, why didn't they call 911? I mean, the ambulance isn't the police. Why take the risk of taking her limp body out of the home and into the back seat of the van, driving the van with a dead body in it, and then parking the van in an apt. complex?

Very strange, indeed.

I have a friend who went to Prison for 3 1/2 years for calling 911 when a 20 year old woman overdosed on heroin. HE wasn't the supplier and was doing what he thought was right. HER parents had money and wanted someone to blame for their daughters death and would refuse to place responsibility on HER. and yeah she was a known junkie. so there ya go!

Another friend overdosed a few years later and whoever he was with dumped his body at the hospital. It is very sad to think that was the only option.

 

[SurfieTX]

The autopsy of Melissa Best on Wednesday did not determine a cause of death, while her husband issued a statement thanking everyone for their help in finding the missing woman.

Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey said the cause of death for the 34-year-old mother of two from Round Lake Park will have to wait eight to 10 days for the full toxicology studies.

http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/5057645-418/autopsy-inconclusive-in-cause-of-death-of-round-lake-park-mom.html

 

[*~Aimee~*]

Family posted pics of Melissa on the find Melissa Best facebook

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/...75336155.67648.211956618832124&type=1&theater

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...ter#!/pages/FIND-Melissa-Best/211956618832124

 

[panthera]

The autopsy of Melissa Best on Wednesday did not determine a cause of death, while her husband issued a statement thanking everyone for their help in finding the missing woman.

Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey said the cause of death for the 34-year-old mother of two from Round Lake Park will have to wait eight to 10 days for the full toxicology studies.

http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/5057645-418/autopsy-inconclusive-in-cause-of-death-of-round-lake-park-mom.html

Not being able to determine a COD through the autopsy indicates, imo, that it probably was a drug overdose leading to cardiac arrest. MOO

 

[Cortne]

So very sad..

Has to be addiction hidden somewhere. Those poor children. And the husband of course.

 

[panthera]

So very sad..

Has to be addiction hidden somewhere. Those poor children. And the husband of course.

The one thing that doesn't make sense about it being an addiction is she was a stay at home mom and therefore, where would she have gotten money for street drugs? I am curious, however, just what was going on where she went that afternoon. MOO

 

[CuriousHousewife]

The one thing that doesn't make sense about it being an addiction is she was a stay at home mom and therefore, where would she have gotten money for street drugs? I am curious, however, just what was going on where she went that afternoon. MOO

I am considered a "stay at home mom" as I only work on a case by case basis and I don't make much of our income. I don't account for every dollar I spend and my husband doesn't really keep track unless things are *really* off. I could easily support a drug habit without my husband realizing it.

 

[fedfan4life]

To me, this story just is odd. I cannot even comprehend a mother of 2 teenagers going grocery shopping, dropping off one of the children @ a friend's, then going to do drugs before going home to make dinner.

It makes me wonder how many of my friends, coworkers, acquaintences, etc... might be doing this type of thing without anyone knowing.

I guess it is hitting close to home since I am in the area, and many of my close friends are in Lake Villa (only a couple of miles from Round Lake Beach).

 

[SurfieTX]

Lake County prosecutors could file charges next week in connection with the apparent drug-related death of a Round Lake Park woman, who was found more than a week after she was reported missing.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/05/06/charges-possible-next-week-in-death-of-round-lake-park-woman/

 

[panthera]

Lake County prosecutors could file charges next week in connection with the apparent drug-related death of a Round Lake Park woman, who was found more than a week after she was reported missing.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/05/06/charges-possible-next-week-in-death-of-round-lake-park-woman/

Thank you for the update. Good news indeed!

 

[CuriousHousewife]

I do hope someone is at least charged with obstruction or improper disposal or something...

 

[chasing.halos]

I am just horrified...

Missing Round Lake Park woman’s in-laws charged in her death: police

<snip>

Sherry Best and her husband, Charles — the brother of Melissa’s husband, Clinton — were charged Thursday with concealing a homicide, officials announced said. Sherry Best was also charged with drug-induced homicide, a felony which carries a minimum of 15 years in prison for allegedly providing the heroin that authorities believe killed Melissa.

After dropping off one of her children with a friend on April 15, Melissa Best drove herself to an extended-stay Waukegan motel where her in-laws lived. There, she injected herself with heroin, police said. She almost immediately fell unconscious, Round Lake Park Police Chief George Filenko said.


Sherry Best, who had earlier taken heroin, allegedly did nothing at that point to help her sister-in-law, police said.


“No attempt was made to call for emergency services,’’ Filenko said.


Charles Best came home about a half-hour later and immediately tried to resuscitate his sister-in-law but was unable to, police said.


Later that day, the Bests carried her body down the stairs from the third floor room and put the body in the backseat of Melissa Best’s minivan — which Charles Best then drove to a condominium complex in unincorporated Grayslake, police said. Sherry Best followed him in her car and picked up her husband, leaving the minivan behind.

<snip>

http://www.suntimes.com/news/534440...mans-in-laws-charged-in-her-death-police.html

 

[cluciano63]

Oh my God, her husband's brother and sister-in-law?

 

[chasing.halos]

Oh my God, her husband's brother and sister-in-law?

Yep. I am just horrified....