Alaska teen girl injected with heroin at party dies

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A 14-year-old girl who was injected with heroin by a man at a party last week in Alaska died on Thursday, the victim of an overdose that damaged her brain and heart, Anchorage police said.

Jena Dolstad spent days on life support after she was found last Friday face down in her own vomit. She never regained consciousness, Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Anita Shell said.

Sean Warner, 26, who according to local media reports served in the U.S. war in Afghanistan as a Navy medic, was accused of injecting the girl with heroin at his home and will likely be charged with murder or manslaughter, Shell said.

Police reports said Dolstad was found overdosed on Warner's bed the night after she had been injected with 25 to 30 units of heroin, identified by a witness as "China White."

The reports said she had wanted to try the drug but allowed Warner to inject her because she was unwilling to give herself a shot.

Police reports did not explain the relationship between the pair but said Warner told officers he did not know Dolstad's name or age. Witnesses told police they went with Warner to pick up the girl on their way to his home the night of the gathering.

Warner's relatives in Oregon told Anchorage television station KTUU that Warner began using heroin himself after suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome from the war in Afghanistan.

Warner has remained jailed since he was charged on Sunday with drug possession, theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempting to hide evidence of a crime in connection with the case, court records showed.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)