Cedar Lake woman charged with selling drugs that killed Hammond man

Chicago Tribune

18-04-2025

A Cedar Lake woman could face decades in prison for selling fentanyl-laced heroin and crack cocaine that led to a Hammond man's fatal overdose.
Alexis Bahm, 27, was charged Tuesday with dealing in a controlled substance resulting in death, a Level 1 felony; dealing in cocaine and two counts of dealing in a narcotic drug, all Level 5 felonies.
She is in custody, held without bail.
If convicted, at maximum she faces up to 58 years in prison.
Hammond Police Det. David Hornyak responded Feb. 7 to a home on the 6800 block of Ridgeland Avenue.
A man told officers he found his brother, Andy Parus, 49, dead on his back in his bedroom.
Officers found a 'rock-like' substance, brown powder — crack and fentanyl-laced heroin — and a crack pipe in the room.
The man said his brother appeared 'jittery' the night before and he suspected he was on drugs.
The Lake County Coroner's Office ruled Parus' death was due to a cocaine and fentanyl overdose with hypertension as an additional contributor.
On Parus' cell phone, police found multiple messages to 'Lexx.'
'You should pick up that thing before you come,' Parus wrote.
'I got the smoke (crack) and I got the boy (heroin),' she responded.
Police traced the phone number to Bahm and showed the phone was in the area in the hours leading to his death.
Bahm told investigators she sold $200 worth of heroin and crack to Parus. She didn't mean to kill him and believed the heroin should have been 'cut' before she sold it.
Indiana lawmakers passed legislation in 2018 designed to punish drug dealers — with sentences from 20 to 40 years — if they sold drugs that led to a fatal overdose.
That came as fentanyl, a deadly and powerful synthetic opioid, started getting regularly cut into street drugs like heroin.
Overdose deaths tied to fentanyl increased by 279% nationwide from 2016 to 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. In a 12-month-period ending August 2022, 107,000 people died from fentanyl-related overdose deaths, data shows.
However, in more recent years, state data shows synthetic opioid deaths have been declining.
Lake County deaths dropped from 163 in 2021 to 120 in 2023 and 58 in 2024, according to the Indiana Department of Health's Drug Overdose Dashboard. The website notes the 2023 and 2024 data are still provisional.
Parus worked for Team Industrial Services in Hammond, and liked to play guitar and cook, his obituary stated. He is survived by a father, brother and other family members.