U of I student’s drug-related death followed chaotic events, hospital release, records show

Caden Young, of Boise, was revived through CPR and medication and taken to a Washington hospital after potentially using fentanyl-laced cocaine, according to police reports obtained by the Idaho Statesman. He was released less than 12 hours later.

And about seven hours after that, the 22-year-old University of Idaho student died in his sleep on March 21, according to a witness.

The police reports describe a chaotic series of events at a hotel in Seattle, where Young’s two companions summoned emergency responders on March 20. But they also indicate that nothing out of the ordinary occurred between his exit from the hospital and his arrival at a friend’s apartment in Centralia, 83 miles away.

The incident led to drug charges against the two companions who were with him at the hotel, one a woman he knew from U of I. The friend who reported Young’s death later contacted the woman on behalf of police to try to set up a meeting to purchase drugs, according to the police report, so police could find her.

“Love you guys but not right now,” the woman replied on Snapchat. “That was super scary working through the situation. This man literally died in D’s arms. We love Caden and I want him to be straight and I want to make sure he rests and is taken care of and understands how serious that was. I want to see him healthy. We love you guys.”

Young’s death was the latest tragedy in a turbulent school year for the U of I. Four students were stabbed to death in November.

Young was a member and former president of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity. A journalism student, he wrote for the U of I’s student newspaper, The Argonaut, in 2021 and was “pursuing his interest in reporting on human rights and geopolitical issues,” according to a Facebook post from the journalism college.

The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the U of I did not reply to the Idaho Statesman’s request for comment.

“This has understandably been a difficult year for the Vandal family, with the loss of several students since the start of the academic year last August,” Blaine Eckles, U of I dean of students and vice provost for student affairs, said in a memo to students. “Please make sure to take care of yourself and others. As a community, we collectively mourn Caden’s death and share our deepest condolences with his family and friends who are most impacted by his passing.”

According to the reports from the Centralia Police Department, these are the events that led to Young’s death:

While in Washington on March 16 during a U of I break, Young first stayed with a former college fraternity brother in Centralia — the same man who would pick him up from the hospital and take him home the day he died.

Young then traveled to Seattle, where he spent time at a Holiday Inn with the 22-year old Moscow woman and a 36-year-old Tacoma man.

The hotel manager told police she received a call from the woman asking the manager to call 911 on March 20. The manager and a maintenance worker went up to the room to find Young lying unconscious, vomiting and blue in color.

The manager told police the man and woman were “freaking out.” The man splashed ice water on Young, slapped him in the face and performed CPR until medics arrived, according to the manager.

After medics used low doses of Naloxone to revive Young, he began breathing again and became conscious. The police reported that the man and woman seemed emotional, with the woman falling “to her knees” and the man hitting the wall and saying, “Thank God.” Police said the man “made a statement” to an officer “confirming that (Young) ingested fentanyl.”

At 2:23 p.m., Young was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where medical staff treated him for a fentanyl overdose. The hospital released him at about 2 a.m. March 21 when his former fraternity brother picked him up.

Susan Gregg, director of media relations for the medical center, confirmed to the Idaho Statesman that Young was treated and released at Harborview. She said she could not release further information on his treatment because of HIPAA laws. Centralia police received Young’s medical records from Harborview. When the Statesman requested those records, they were all redacted.

The Centralia friend told police that after he picked up Young, Young fell asleep multiple times on the drive back to the apartment and was “so out of it” that the friend “had to guide him because he could not keep his eyes open.”

Young fell asleep at the apartment at about 4:30 a.m. and the Centralia friend checked on him for the next several hours, according to statements to police. The friend showed police a video he took of Young snoring loudly at 8 a.m.

“Based on the snore, I recognized it to sound similar to the snorting sound people who were dying commonly did with their last breaths,” Officer Timothy O’Dell wrote in a police report.

At about 8:39 a.m., the friend woke and found Young unresponsive. The friend and a roommate attempted CPR before calling 911 at 9:07 a.m. to report that Young was unconscious and not breathing.

First responders and police arrived but were not able to get a pulse.

A preliminary analysis of Young’s urine later found that he had fentanyl, benzos, marijuana, cocaine and alcohol in his system.

Police believed the woman who provided drugs to Young in Seattle was a “safety concern” because she was “actively trafficking in cocaine that was laced with fentanyl.” They took measures to track her down immediately. Her license plate was entered into the Flock camera system, which uses automated license plate recognition technology, and police began tracking her phone as well.

Using phone pings, they were able to find her and the Tacoma man in Des Moines, Washington. Officers arrested them on suspicion of delivery of a controlled substance at 10:05 p.m. March 21, according to Lewis County Jail records. A white substance found in the woman’s car was cocaine containing fentanyl, police determined.