Couple high on drugs crushed to death after seeking shelter in recycle bin

New Hampshire's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mitchell Weinberg concluded that Lurvey died as a result of crush injuries, and her manner of death was accidental, "to wit, crushed by trash compactor while intoxicated by fentanyl." (Belmont Police phot

CONCORD - A couple who sheltered in a recycling bin during a September rainstorm both died when they were inadvertently picked up and crushed mechanically in a waste truck that was unloaded at the Belmont transfer station, according to information received from the Attorney General's office today.

The woman who died, Jessica Lurvey, 28, was discovered in Belmont on Sept. 9, when Belmont Police responded to a waste transfer station, and found her deceased. Lurvey's body arrived at the transfer station among the contents of a disposal truck and had been discovered when contents were being removed and separated.

Twelve days later, the deceased body of Matthew Schofield, 29, was found at a Lewiston, Maine, solid waste facility where waste would continue on for processing from the Belmont transfer facility.

New Hampshire's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mitchell Weinberg concluded that Lurvey died as a result of crush injuries, and her manner of death was accidental, "to wit, crushed by trash compactor while intoxicated by fentanyl."

According to the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Schofield's death was also ruled accidental, resulting from probable combined effects of buprenorphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.

Based on the investigation conducted into the deaths of Lurvey and Schofield, who were involved in a prior romantic relationship, it appears that on the evening of Sept. 8 during a heavy rainstorm the two sought shelter from the inclement weather in a large trash or recycling bin, which was mechanically picked up by and loaded into a compacting waste removal vehicle.

The contents of the vehicle, including the bodies of Lurvey and Schofield were then brought to the waste facility in Belmont, according to the AG's press release. There, Lurvey's body was discovered during the waste sorting process. Schofield's body, however, was not discovered at the Belmont facility, but was further transferred with waste products to the facility in Maine where his body was subsequently discovered.

Lurvey, like Schofield, was intoxicated by drugs at the time of her death, a circumstance that likely factored into hers and Schofield's accidental death, officials said.