Circumstances leading to UVic student’s fatal overdose ‘shocking,’ says drug squad investigator – CBC
Sidney McIntyre-Starko died of fentanyl poisoning after snorting drugs with 2 friends in a dorm bathroom
May 06, 2025
A drug squad investigator said it was “shocking” to learn how 18-year-old University of Victoria student Sidney McIntyre-Starko came to possess and then ingest the toxic drugs that killed her.
Saanich Police Department Const. Ben Scoones made the comment while testifying on the seventh day of the B.C. Coroners Service inquest into the January 2024 death of McIntyre-Starko.
Scoones was tasked with investigating potential drug trafficking on the UVic campus a few days after the first-year student died of a fatal fentanyl overdose in a UVic student dorm.
“It’s such a shocking story that somebody found drugs and then decided to use these drugs as a group without knowing what these drugs were or where they came from,” he told the coroner’s court jury.
In testimony last week, a female UVic student known only as “Student 1” told the inquest that she found a box of unopened wine coolers on a downtown Victoria street after a dance class. Student 1 said she took the wine coolers back to campus on the bus before handing the box over to three friends.
