Ellwood City man wanted for drug delivery resulting in death captured, leads to drug bust
ELLWOOD CITY — A borough man charged with drug delivery resulting in death in Beaver Falls has been captured by police, which in turn led to a drug bust in the borough.
Douglas Lample, 48, was secured by police on Feb. 16.
He is charged with purchasing heroin on July 20, 2021, which was used by Beaver Falls resident Dawn Dittmer, 48, who later died from an overdose.
More: Further information on Lample's case
Lample reportedly bought the drugs from Ellwood City resident Diana Tillia, who is also charged with drug delivery resulting in death.
More: Lawrence County woman charged with drug delivery resulting in death
Court papers state the Ellwood City Police Department was notified that Lample was staying at an apartment on Fifth Street in Ellwood, belonging to Gary Zgoda, 61, and Terri Haney, 48.
Police located Lample in the apartment and secured him for the Beaver County Sheriff’s Department.
Court papers state Zgoda and Haney were told by police on Jan. 21 that Lample had an active arrest warrant, and that police were told by confidential informants that Zgoda deals controlled substances and stores them in a detached exterior garage behind the residence.
A search warrant was later approved for the property.
During the search, among other items, police found: A black leather pouch containing black lottery tickets used for packaging controlled substances; a box of sandwich baggies used for packaging controlled substances; a cigarette box containing a broken spoon, two syringes, and lotter folds; a suspected glass methamphetamine pipe; numerous blank lottery tickets; identification for Zgoda and Lample; a pill bottle prescribed to Zgoda containing a pipe; a baggie containing suspected crystal methamphetamine; a digital weight scale containing a white powder residue and suspected narcotics residue; multiple yellow Suboxone strips; paper containing suspected controlled substances; multiple lottery folds containing suspected drug residue; multiple cut plastic straws; a rubber tie-dyed pouch containing suspected drug residue; a silver spoon containing suspected drug residue; seven suspected ecstasy tablets; a ceramic container, a rubber pouch, a glass container, and a baggie containing drug residue; three pills later identified as Clonazepam; pieces of suspected crystal methamphetamine; and one suspected glass crack pipe.
Court papers state Haney’s purse was searched, with police reportedly finding one suspected metal crack pipe and four suspected ecstasy tablets.
In total, police said they secured 12.91 grams of suspected crystal methamphetamine and 0.75 grams of suspected heroin.
Lample is now facing a new charge of flight to avoid apprehension in Lawrence County, after attempting to flee from police once they found him in the apartment.
Both Zgoda and Haney are charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and five counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Nicholas Vercilla is a staff reporter for the Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger. He can be reached at nvercilla@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Ellwood City Ledger: Ellwood City man caught by police, leads to drug bust
