Gilbert woman charged with murder after man ODs; she then wrote about it in a private Facebook message

A Gilbert, Minn., woman has been charged with third-degree murder after she allegedly gave drugs to a 25-year-old Mountain Iron man who died later from the effects of fentanyl and ethanol last summer.

Ashley Rose Cook, 20, whom investigators had been unable to find, was arrested earlier this week and arraigned in St. Louis County court in Hibbing on Tuesday. Her bail has been set at $500,000 and her next court appearance is Thursday. She is in the St. Louis County jail.

According to the criminal complaint, Cook wrote about her role in the man’s death in a private Facebook message sent on July 31.

“I gave [the victim a] perc 30 and he died,” she said. “Perc” is another name for oxycodone, according to DEA.gov.

Investigators also found a Facebook exchange between Cook and the victim indicating that she was looking for people who wanted to buy opioids.

A witness said that she and the victim met with Cook at a gas station in Gilbert. He got out of the car to talk to Cook, while the witness went to the bathroom to look for a phone she had left there earlier. The witness, her brother and the victim went home, where they planned to have a bonfire. The latter went to the bathroom but didn’t return. He was found dead alongside a piece of aluminum foil with burnt residue. An autopsy determined that he had died from the toxic effects of fentanyl and ethanol.

According to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department, Cook’s arrest is the result of a nearly nine-month investigation by the Lake Superior Violent Offenders Task Force to “hold those accountable who profit off the deadly sale of controlled substances, particularly fentanyl.”