CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A local woman said she narrowly escaped an attempted attack at a gas station after touching a door handle coated in what she believed was fentanyl, leading to her hospitalization for a suspected overdose from skin exposure.
Jess Stonerock detailed the harrowing ordeal in a Facebook post Thursday, describing how she stopped at an Exxon station near the Chillicothe fairgrounds to use the restroom after picking up her sick child from a friend’s house. “Once we got into Chillicothe I realized I had to use the restroom asap. So before turning on 207, I decided to just drive half a mile past to the Exxon station by the Chillicothe fairgrounds,” Stonerock wrote.
She noticed the station’s lights were dimmed but assumed it was still open. After telling her son to lock the doors, she approached the building. “I tried to pull the door, no luck. But I felt ‘dirt’ on my hands after touching the handle, so I just brushed them off on my pants,” she recounted. “My first thought was, ‘maybe they have an outside restroom?’”
At that moment, Stonerock said, a silver or grayish car pulled in and followed her around the building. “Realizing, I walked back to my car, they still followed, but this time they moved so fast tires squealed to corner me into my car,” she wrote. Fortunately, her son unlocked the doors, allowing her to lock them again quickly. “They then booked it out of there. I was trying to process what just happened, I didn’t look for a tag number or even got a look at what they looked like, I just wanted out of there.”
About 10 minutes later, while driving down Route 207, Stonerock began experiencing severe symptoms. “Ten minutes down 207 I started getting hot. I thought it was just my fight or flight senses that had locked in, but I just kept getting hotter, and then dizzier and then I felt like I was gonna pass out right there,” she said. She raced to Adena Hospital. “….drug tested by the doctor in the E.R. and was told fentanyl does not show on their test, only opioids, but he said since I responded so well to the narcan and had the exact symptoms, he was 90% positive it was a fentanyl overdose.”
Stonerock was hospitalized and treated with Narcan, sharing photos of her bloody nose, arm rash and other injuries from the episode. “We are home now, terrified but okay physically. God had his hand on us for sure,” she added. “Please be aware of your surroundings. I never thought this would happen to me but it did. It can happen to you too.”
The Old Canal Stop, the gas station involved, initially posted on Facebook that a review of security footage showed no evidence of suspicious activity. “We have reviewed all the camera footage from last night and have worked with the sheriffs office and have no evidence that any persons were here after close,” the business stated in a post.
However, in an update hours later, the station revised its statement after receiving more information. “We received more information and checked the cameras again, she was in fact here just sooner than we had started looking,” the post read. “We are praying for her and her family and will be sending all footage we have to the sheriff’s office.”
The incident sparked comments on the station’s post.
Kaitlyn Young, asked, “Was the car she described also seen on cameras? maybe your cameras can get a view of the license plate or maybe even the person driving?”
The Ross County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.