AUBURN — A 35-year-old New Gloucester woman whose body was found in a pond just beyond the northern tip of Lake Auburn in July 2018 died from drowning combined with drug intoxication, according to state medical officials.
Jessica Gallant
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also reported Monday, in response to the Sun Journal’s Freedom of Access Act request, that the manner of Jessica Gallant’s death was undetermined, meaning it was not ruled a homicide, a suicide or accidental.
Auburn Police Chief Jason Moen said Monday that Gallant’s death remains an “active investigation,” and he had no information he could release to the public.
In a letter from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the cause of death included several drugs found in Gallant’s system at the autopsy.
A medical expert consulted by the Sun Journal said drugs found in her system included illegal opioids, non-opioid painkillers and cocaine.
The autopsy also revealed opioid and cocaine use disorders and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and myocarditis. The former is also known as emphysema and the latter is an inflammation of the heart muscle, likely caused by infection, according to the medical expert.
Fishermen found her unclothed body floating about 20 feet offshore at about 5:30 a.m. in The Basin on July 29. The Basin is a popular fishing pond off the northern tip of Lake Auburn.
Auburn police investigated with the help of Maine State Police.
In an undated post on her Facebook page, Gallant wrote she had grown up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, before moving to Portland in 1998. She moved to Auburn in 2008, then Sabattus in 2012.
She had written on Facebook: “Happiness does exist. And I am blessed to have discovered this.”
According to Sun Journal archives, Gallant was the mother of a boy born March 1, 2018. His father is a Lewiston man.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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