A Joppa woman is accused of manslaughter in the heroin overdose death of a Sudlersville man whose body was found abandoned in a churchyard.
Jessica Cuddy, 30, of Joppa, was being held today on a $100,000 bond in the death of William Sutton of Sudlersville whose body was discovered early Saturday on the grounds of St. Luke’s Church in Queenstown.
The Queen Anne’s Sheriff’s Office reports investigators learned that Cuddy was at a family residence located in “Recovery” near Centreville and was “partying with Sutton and provided him with heroin” on the night he overdosed.
“When Sutton’s breathing stopped, Cuddy, instead of calling medical assistance, loaded Sutton into the bed of a truck and drove about five miles to St Luke’s,” the sheriff’s office stated. “She then left the body covered in a blue blanket.”
Investigators say Cuddy then drove to a truck stop just outside Centreville and called 911, reporting she had seen a man at the church who appeared to be overdosed or drunk.
“She provided the dispatcher with a fake name and then disconnected the call,” according to the sheriff’s report.
Deputies responding to the call found Sutton, aged 30 and unemployed, dead.
“Investigation soon identified Cuddy as the caller,” the report said. Cuddy came to the sheriff’s office and gave her account of the incident and afterward was arrested and charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment and controlled dangerous substance charges.
Depluty Bruce Layton led the investigation, assisted by detectives J.D. Hofmann and Steve Stouffer of the Queen Anne’s sheriff’s narcotics task force as well as the Maryland State Police crime lab.
Jimmy Cleveland says
THe simple fact is the man was dead already and no matter what she did would have eneded up dead. This is another extremely sad case of someone choosing to risk there own lives by using dangerous drugs, dying and leaving the people with only periphreal characters to hang for the crime. The unfortunate truth is the man died by his own hand, because of choice he made. I hope their is an afterlife because an addict like him and many more suffer only sometimes finding serenity in drugs and eventually death. Balming an addict for another addicts death is rediculous, regardless of what happened after the fact.
Phyllis says
Mr Cleveland, how do you know he was dead already, were you there? You are correct that addicts choose to use. I also know that heroin addicts rarely use alone in case of an overdose. How sad that he was in company of friends that were as close as family and he was dumped as if he was some unknown. If you have been paying attention to the case you would know that the person being held admitted that he was in distress but instead of calling 911 called everyone but. If this were a child of yours would you not expect that while in the company of friends (and no matter what the situation is)… that they would do what they could to help your child?