DES MOINES (AP) --- Authorities are investigating whether a patient at a drug-abuse treatment center killed a worker to get drugs.
Ryan Ray Wichhart, 19, of North Liberty, is charged with killing Kathi Mertens, 44, a counselor aide at the Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services center in Burlington.
Her body was found Wednesday morning locked inside the center's medication storage room. An inventory of the medicine closet revealed some drugs were missing.
"Was he in there (the closet) to get meds? That's what we're speculating," said Burlington police Maj. Dan Luttenegger.
Wichhart had been a patient at the residential facility for about two weeks, Luttenegger said.
Authorities are not sure how Mertens was killed, but Luttenegger said it was not by stabbing or gun shot.
Results of an autopsy conducted Thursday in Ankeny were not available.
Mertens was the only staff member in the building overnight, working a midnight to 8 a.m. shift, said center director Rick Swanson. A co-worker reported finding Mertens unconscious, but she was dead when authorities arrived.
Wichhart was arrested at a nearby grocery store hours later and charged with murder and public intoxication. Authorities said he was driving Mertens' car.
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