CEDAR CITY, Utah, May 10, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Police have clarified the case against a Utah couple charged in the April 20th death of a Cedar City woman they say died after overdosing on fentanyl.
Kimberly Hare, 33, and her husband, John Parry, 39, were booked into the Iron County Jail late last week and now face multiple felony charges for allegedly supplying the 31-year-old female victim with the fentanyl that claimed her life.
According to probable cause affidavits, filed in both cases, Cedar City police were dispatched to a reported cardiac arrest Saturday, April 20, with reports of a female victim “not breathing or responsive.”
The affidavits also indicated the victim, who was undergoing CPR as police were being dispatched, was 21 weeks pregnant. Cedar City police now say, nearly one week after the suspects’ arrests, “the victim in this case was not pregnant. This is an error in the PC statement,” the CCPD wrote to Gephardt Daily, “and to clarify the victim was not pregnant.”
Once police arrived, the female overdose victim was “not breathing on the ground with Narcan that appeared to be used next to her. Witnesses were yelling at officers stating that she needed Narcan,” the affidavit says.
Narcan is a non-prescription medication used to rapidly reverse effects of an opioid overdose.
“Officer found one foil with two blue pills resembling Fentanyl. Another foil was found on the floor with burn residue and one blue pill slightly burnt in it next to the victim. A pen was torn apart with burn residue in the tube,” the affidavit states.
“This would be consistent to smoking fentanyl. The female was pronounced dead by EMS and a death investigation began.”
The affidavit also claims, “Multiple subjects told officers the person who sold fentanyl to the victim was Kimberly Dawn Hare.
“They stated they know she is a fentanyl dealer in Cedar City. With this information, agents began doing surveillance on Kimberly and her husband, John Parry.”
Surveillance footage later confirmed Hare had entered the woman’s hotel room for about 10 minutes shortly before the victim’s overdose death, the affidavit alledges.
On May 1, Cedar City police officers stopped Hare as she was driving her distinctive, damaged green van, which was allegedly caught on surveillance video at the hotel on the night of the overdose. A police K-9 indicated the van was positive for narcotics, and the vehicle was searched. Hare also consented to a search of her phone, her affidavit says, which contained “drug communications.”
A confidential informant also allegedly told investigators it was John Parry who arranged the fatal drug deal, and that Parry would be traveling to Salt Lake City on Friday to buy fentanyl. Officers stopped Parry’s vehicle when he returned to Iron County, and they found the drugs when searching his vehicle, the affidavit claims.
The informant also claimed Parry and Hare frequently used drugs in the presence of children they live with.
Parry was arrested Friday and charged with multiple felonies, including manslaughter.
Hare was arrested Saturday on identical charges, including:
Manslaughter, a second-degree felony
Possession of a controlled substance schedule I/II/analog, a first-degree felony
Three counts of endangerment of a child or vulnerable adult, a third-degree felony.
Both Hare and Parry have criminal histories for drugs and have been convicted of distribution previously. It was requested that they both be held without bail.
