Less than three weeks after five Coloradans died in what is believed to be the largest single fentanyl overdose in the country, three more people were found dead in a hotel room in Cortez after ingesting fentanyl.

One of the victims, 44-year-old Shondella Silas, was buried Thursday.

Shondella Silas left behind five children, according to her niece, Janille Silas, who said her aunt likely didn’t know that she was ingesting the deadly opioid.

“Shondella was full of life and had so many more years to give. It was cut short,” said Janille Silas.

Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers said it will be at least a month before toxicology results are released because of a nationwide backup at the labs. But investigators found tiny blue pills in the room at the National 9 Inn on Main Street, where the three bodies were discovered March 3, suggesting the deaths were caused by an overdose.

“We found pills consistent with other pills we’ve seen,” Deavers said. “They were turquoise blue stamped with an ‘M’ on one side and ‘30’ on the other.”

When officers responded to a complaint from the hotel manager about a loud disturbance coming from a room at around 11 p.m., the three were already dead, said Andy Brock, Cortez’s assistant police chief.

“One was slumped over in a chair and two were lying on the ground,” said Brock. He told The Denver Gazette that police found alcohol and pills in the room, but not enough suspected fentanyl to make him think that the three were drug dealers. “This was for personal use,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had multiple deaths at one time.”

Tharon Grayhair, 40, Tilden Arrates, 27, and Shondella Silas were all tribal members, said Janille Silas. Grayhair was Navajo, from White Mesa, Utah, and Arrates and Shondella Silas both lived in Towaoc on Ute Mountain Ute tribal land near Cortez.

Brock said that “blues” — the street name for fentanyl — began showing up in the Four Corners area two years ago and that its use has exploded so much that local law enforcement has formed a task force consisting of two officers, one from the Cortez Police Department and one from the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office. The Montezuma Cortez Drug Task Force will look into the potency of the batch of pills collected from last week’s incident and is investigating who distributed the pills to the victims.

Law enforcement sources have told The Denver Gazette that the fentanyl being sold in Colorado comes from Mexico, where it’s manufactured and not regulated. 

“They don’t have quality control in these labs. Was this particular batch a hot load? We never know what the dosage is until we get the toxicology reports,” Brock said.

Fentanyl use is increasing in every corner of Colorado. On Feb. 20, three women and two men were found dead at the North Range Crossings Apartments at 14480 E. 104th Ave. in Commerce City during a welfare check by a relative. A sixth woman who was taken to the hospital survived and a 4-month old infant was found alive in a back room.

Steve Kotecki, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said investigators believe that the Commerce City deaths were the largest number of people to die of a fentanyl overdose at one time in the same place. Law enforcement across the country and especially here in Colorado are pleading with people to wake up to the potentially deadly drug.

Kotecki said that around 140 to 150 people die of fentanyl-related overdoses in the U.S. every day. That’s how many people fit in a Boeing 737.

“If a 737 crashed every day in America, people would be demanding action,” Kotecki said.

The deaths of eight people in two incidents in less than three weeks illustrate the meteoric rise of Colorado’s fentanyl crisis since 2000, when there were five fentanyl overdose deaths in the entire year. Compare that number to 2021, when fentanyl deaths soared to 803, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Vital Statistics Manager Kirk Bol cautions that the 2021 numbers could rise because they won’t be final until May.

There have been no arrests in the Commerce City case and none so far in Cortez. Deavers, the Montezuma County coroner, said the three people who died of suspected fentanyl ingestion are the first deaths of the year for the county.

This week, on their Facebook page, Cortez police warned parents to keep an eye on their children.

”I don’t know that people realize how dangerous fentanyl is. If you find any blue pills, you’ve got issues,” said Brock.