Police: VCU student’s drug death linked to events at Fluvanna home

The events leading to the suspicious New Year's Eve death of a Virginia Commonwealth University doctoral student occurred at a home in Fluvanna County, where authorities believe Kristan Charlene Fox ingested a lethal mix of drugs.

Police have debunked initial reports that two male acquaintances of the 26-year-old woman found her a day earlier lying behind a McDonald's restaurant at 11445 James Madison Highway off Interstate 64 near Zion Crossroads in Louisa County.

The men claimed to have picked up Fox there after she called and asked them to do so.

"That wasn't accurate at all," said Louisa sheriff's Maj. Donald A. Lowe. "Basically, they stated [they found her in Louisa] because they were just kind of caught off guard by the detective asking questions, and they were trying to come up with some kind of story."

"It was hard for us to believe that somebody could by laying out there dying and nobody calling 911," Lowe added. "We saw nothing on surveillance tapes that would indicate that she was even there."

After Louisa authorities retraced the last days of her life, investigators determined "with a high degree of certainty" that the events leading to Fox's death occurred in a Fluvanna home where she was living with a male friend, police said.

"Everything indicates a drug overdose," Lowe said. The official cause of death still is pending. Police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

Lowe said emergency room reports from Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, where the two men took Fox about 1 a.m. Dec. 30, indicated that drugs were used. Fox was pronounced dead about 5:40 p.m. the next day. Police declined to describe the type of drugs that were involved.

After Louisa authorities determined that nothing happened to Fox in Louisa, they turned their investigation over to the Fluvanna County Sheriff's Office.

Lowe said Fox, a VCU student who also taught an introductory course in criminal justice at VCU, was in the process of moving from Richmond to Fluvanna.

Lt. David Wells of the Fluvanna Sheriff's Office said the house where Fox was staying is in the Troy area of northwestern Fluvanna. He said it's too early to say whether charges would be filed against whoever supplied Fox with the drugs.

Fox was a student in VCU's doctorate program in public policy and administration at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. She was a dedicated teacher and researcher "with an impressive publication record for a doctoral student," said VCU spokeswoman Pamela Lepley.

Her research focused on the criminal-justice system's impact on women and minorities. In December 1999, when she was 16, Fox witnessed the violent deaths of her mother and stepfather in a murder-suicide.