Man found in Kelowna porta-potty died of overdose

KELOWNA – Coroners didn't have to do an autopsy to figure out how a man died in a portable washroom in Mission Creek Park last year.

The toxicology report told them everything they needed to know. 

Justin Gust Grunwald, 26, died of accidental fentanyl toxicity, Coroner Debra Rees ruled in a report. He was one of 238 people who died of overdose in the B.C. Interior in 2017, many of them involving fentanyl.

Rees said Grunwald had a known history of drug abuse that began with a "shared" prescription for oxycontin. He attended a treatment centre where he was briefly prescribed methadone but Rees said his family thought he had it under control when he moved to another province for a time. He returned home to Kelowna in January 2016 and over the course of a year, began using again. 

On Feb. 4, 2017 a jogger found Grunwald's body in a porta-potty and he was declared dead at the scene. Police found and seized a drug baggie and tinfoil. 

Rees said toxicology revealed a moderate level of intoxication with alcohol but a lethal level of fentanyl and methamphetamine.

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