Pubdate: Tue, 30 Nov 2004
Source: Post-Crescent, The (Appleton,  WI)
Copyright: 2004 The Post-Crescent
Contact:  http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1443
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

POLICE LINK HEROIN IN DEATH WITH NEENAH WOMAN'S SON

Koerner Previously Has Had a Boyfriend Overdose on Drug

OSHKOSH - Authorities say a Neenah woman, who faces up to 40 years in 
prison for reckless homicide in the Oct. 26 overdose death of a Neenah man, 
bought the heroin from her son.

Jill K. Koerner, 46, was arrested by Neenah police last week after telling 
investigators she had purchased three bindles of heroin from her 
19-year-old son shortly before Todd K. Stuiber, 40, overdosed in a bedroom 
at her home at 748 Oak St. in Neenah, according to the criminal complaint 
filed in Winnebago County Circuit Court.

Koerner told police she and Stuiber used heroin the early evening of Oct. 
26. After going to the bathroom, she returned to the bedroom and saw 
Stuiber fall over backwards. She tried to revive him but was unresponsive, 
so she called 911, she said.

Nearly three years ago, Koerner also called 911 when her boyfriend, Greg 
Liethen, 40, of Appleton, also died of a heroin overdose on Dec. 31, 2002. 
She was not charged in the case, but in October, Jebb R. Filz, 28, of 
Appleton, was sentenced to at least six years in prison for second-degree 
reckless homicide for supplying the drugs to Liethen.

Koerner, who is free on $2,500 cash bond posted last week after her initial 
court appearance, has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide and 
misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Further proceedings were 
scheduled this afternoon, with a preliminary hearing on Thursday.

Neenah police arrested Koerner last week after a toxicology report pending 
since Stuiber's death revealed that a heroin injection was a substantial 
factor in his death. She had been called in for questioning again by 
investigators along with her son.

Brandon M. Koerner, 19, also of Neenah, who was released pending the filing 
of charges in the case, faces an arraignment Dec. 8 and a sentencing Dec. 9 
in Winnebago court on drug charges unrelated to Stuiber's death.
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