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Loved ones want justice for man who died from heroin overdose

Posted at 5:41 PM, Jun 21, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-21 17:41:27-04

24-year-old Dakota Roth died in his Northdale home on May 20th. He's one of the latest casualties of the heroin epidemic. And while the man who sold him the drugs could be charged with murder, no arrest has been made.

"I think that justice almost needs to be served," Roth's girlfriend, Jennifer Reese said. She was with Roth the night he died.

"I wake up and he's dead laying on my legs," she said while choking up. "I started doing CPR on him. I pulled him on the floor, got on top of him, started crying...dialed 911, put them on speaker and continued doing CPR."

Reese admits she has had her own troubles with substance abuse. She is also aware of Roth's previous legal and drug problems. Still, she's hopeful the law will prevail in Roth's case.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says they're still investigating his case, but admit investigations involving a homicide via drug transactions can be difficult. In fact, they've only had one successful case in the past 5 years.

"He took those drugs knowing what the possibilities could be and the outcome. But also, as a person, do you want to be selling those things that are killing people? Like, would you go on the street and just kill random people?" Reese said.