Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Police Department and Mahoning County Coroner’s Office investigated after two people were found dead Tuesday in the bedroom of a home on South Jackson Street on the East Side. Both agencies said they are investigating it as a possible overdose until further information is available.

Youngstown police were called there at 11:44 a.m. to help someone locked out of his 70-year-old mother-in-law’s home on South Jackson Street. He takes care of her, but the key he uses was not in its normal place.

A Youngstown Fire Department engine went there and found the home secure except for a kitchen window that was unlocked. A firefighter got into the home through the window and unlocked the door, according to a Youngstown police report.

Police entered through the front door with the man who called police, and they found his mother-in-law asleep on the first-floor living room couch. She was incoherent. The man went upstairs, saying his girlfriend might be asleep up there. As officers were attending to the woman downstairs, the man started screaming upstairs.

An officer went up and found a man and woman in the bed on their backs, apparently deceased. Firefighters could not find any vital signs, and both were cold to the touch. First responders called for an ambulance.

Firefighters then checked for carbon monoxide but none was found, the report states. No trauma or signs of foul play were noticed. An officer saw a plastic cup with an unknown liquid in it as well as a clear, plastic wrapper with what appeared to be a 2-inch piece of straw and a white powder in it on the nightstand near the bed, the report states.

The man who called police said he suspected that at least one of the two was a drug user. Ambulance personnel confirmed that both people were deceased, the report states. Detectives, crime scene personnel and the coroner’s office also responded.