When Christina Lacourte discovered her 16-year-old son, Dante, unresponsive inside their San Francisco apartment in April, she immediately reached for two doses of Narcan in the kitchen and administered both.

Neither dose revived him.

Dante had been overcome by cychlorphine, a synthetic opioid reportedly up to 10 times more powerful than fentanyl—strong enough to defeat the emergency medication many parents rely on during an overdose.

Adding to the danger, fentanyl test strips do not detect cychlorphine.

For Christina, the most frightening part was the speed at which this highly potent and difficult-to-detect drug appears to be spreading across the United States.

The case in San Francisco, which drew national attention this week, is not the only reported death linked to the emerging opioid.

In December, 18-year-old Jake Scoufos died in Oklahoma after taking a counterfeit pill he believed was safe. The pill had been contaminated with cychlorphine.

His mother, Malisa Hepner, was left with the same devastating conclusion.

‘In a lot of cases, you can survive a fentanyl overdose. You can’t survive this,’ Malisa told the Daily Mail.

Federal drug officials have connected cychlorphine to at least 55 deaths across the country, with the largest clusters reported in Ohio, Texas and Tennessee.

The drug has been associated with fatalities in at least 18 states.

In Tennessee, the Knox County Regional Forensic Center alone has linked cychlorphine to at least 41 overdose deaths during the past year.

Experts caution, however, that the reported total may be a significant undercount. Routine toxicology panels and commonly used fentanyl test strips can both miss the substance.

Malisa found Jake unresponsive in his bedroom in Yukon, Oklahoma. He was sitting upright, appearing almost peaceful—as if he had fallen asleep while looking at his phone.

To her, he looked as though he were simply sleeping.

Jake thought he was purchasing prescription Percocet from a supplier he had known for years, someone he trusted and believed would provide safe pills.

Malisa said his death illustrates how even teenagers who consider themselves cautious and experienced can be exposed to a lethal counterfeit pill.

Like many determined teenagers, she said, Jake believed he could avoid the dangers that claimed others.

‘Certainly, the ego of an 18-year-old is unrivaled, and he believed he was so smart, and it would never happen to him because he just knew better,’ said Malisa.

She said her family has been ‘okay, but not fine’ in the months since Jake’s death, leaning on grief counseling while trying to understand a drug that wasn’t even identified as the true cause of his death until March this year.

Malisa, 46, isn’t interested in turning her son’s death into a political crusade against cartels or dealers.

Instead, she wants other parents and their children to understand the danger before it’s too late.

She said she wishes she had understood her son’s struggles earlier.

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‘I wish I had understood that all of his little impulsive, erratic choices really was him searching for a way to find peace in the chaos of his internal world,’ she said.

‘My own fear and my own shame prevented me from getting him help far before we found him in his bedroom.’

Cychlorphine was first developed decades ago in a European lab as scientists searched for powerful painkillers, but it proved far too potent and dangerous for medical approval.

Decades later, the recipe for producing it has resurfaced in the darkest corners of the internet, giving underground chemists the tools to manufacture it themselves.

As with other opioids, much of the supply is believed to come from cartel-run labs in Mexico, using chemicals sourced from China.

The dealers encountered by Jake, Dante and other users often have no idea what’s inside the pills they’re selling.

Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor and former White House drug policy adviser, said such drugs no longer require sophisticated pharmaceutical operations to produce.

‘You don’t need to be a big pharma company,’ he explained, noting that cychlorphine can be cooked up cheaply without the farmland needed to grow other narcotics.

Like fentanyl, its principal danger lies in respiratory depression, as the drug can slow or entirely stop a person’s breathing within minutes.

Because of its potency, an overdose is far harder to reverse using naloxone, the emergency antidote better known by its brand name, Narcan.

‘It is ten times more potent than fentanyl… it’s considered Narcan resistant,’ Malisa said.

Jake’s own overdose was initially blamed on fentanyl, and it wasn’t until March 2026 that cychlorphine was confirmed as the true cause of his death.

After Dante died in his mother’s apartment in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, police launched an investigation.

They later raided three residences and arrested four men on narcotics and firearms charges linked to the case.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie vowed the city would not repeat the mistakes of the earlier fentanyl crisis that devastated its streets for years.

‘San Francisco was caught flat-footed by the fentanyl crisis. We will not let that happen again,’ he said.

Nationwide, opioid overdose deaths climbed to historic highs during the pandemic before beginning a steep decline from 2023 onward, offering some hope that the worst may finally be passing.

But that trend brings Malisa little comfort. She doubts America will ever fully shake the epidemic, believing new synthetic drugs will keep emerging for as long as supplying them remains a way of life for those involved.

Now working as a therapist and podcast host, she urges other parents to stay alert to their children’s struggles before a crisis takes hold, and to treat any unfamiliar pill as a potential death sentence.

Mostly, though, she chooses to remember her son’s positive energy and charming grin.

‘It was just the kind of smile that really made everybody else smile,’ she said.

A child has died and two others remain in a serious condition following an alleged stabbing inside a vehicle in the Blue Mountains.

Emergency services were called to Waratah Road in Valley Heights, a small Blue Mountains community, at about 12.45pm on Sunday.

Police are understood to have found three children, believed to be aged between six months and four years, inside the vehicle with a woman known to them.

The woman had also sustained serious injuries, which police believe may have been self-inflicted.

Officers and other emergency responders were called after reports that a woman and three children had suffered stab wounds inside a vehicle.

Several members of the public reportedly stopped to help, giving first aid to the woman and children while Triple Zero was called.

One of the children was found dead inside the vehicle.

Paramedics treated the two surviving children, who had injuries to their necks, as well as the woman at the scene. They were then taken to Westmead Hospital and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

The children are believed to be under five years old, while the woman is thought to be in her 40s. Formal identification has not yet been completed.

The woman and children are understood to have been at the location for only a few minutes when passing cyclists noticed them and began providing first aid.

Police contacted the children’s father while he was at work.

“We’ve made contact with the father and obviously you can imagine receiving that tragic news,” Superintendent John Nelson said.

“That person is at work just going about their business and they’ve had this information provided to them.”

Police have not confirmed the woman’s relationship to the children, but said she was not previously known to them.

A crime scene has been established while detectives investigate the circumstances surrounding the Blue Mountains incident.

The woman and the two surviving children underwent emergency surgery and remained in critical condition on Sunday night.

Police said they were not searching for anyone else in connection with the incident at this stage.

Supt Nelson described the incident as ‘traumatic and tragic’.

‘Let me just say it’s obviously been a very difficult weekend, a very distressing weekend for many people,’ he said.

‘This is the fourth death that we’ve had, potentially domestic violence-related.’ 

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In the state’s north, man has been charged with murder after his mother was found decapitated in a remote Northern Tablelands community.

About 9.35pm on Saturday, police were called to a property on Ironbark Road in Mole River, about 40 minutes west of Tenterfield, following reports of a domestic violence incident.

Officers were told a 37-year-old man had entered a property and attempted to steal a vehicle before assaulting the homeowner, a 74-year-old man.

They then arrested the 37-year-old before visiting a neighbouring property, where they found the body of a 70-year-old woman, who was allegedly decapitated.

The man in custody, who is understood to be her son, was charged with murder and refused bail to appear before bail court on Monday.

In eastern Sydney, a man was charged with murder on Saturday evening after an elderly woman was allegedly stabbed to death at Bondi Beach.

NSW Police were called to a unit on Chambers Avenue in Bondi, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, at 5.15pm on Saturday.

A woman, aged in her 90s, was found with significant injuries. She was treated at the scene, but died.

Sergei Mitnik, 47, who was known to the woman, was arrested at the home and taken to Surry Hills Police Station and charged with murder (domestic violence).

He was refused bail and was scheduled to appear before Bail Court on Sunday.

Police have set up a crime scene and launched an investigation.

In a third incident, a 23-year-old woman was unable to be saved on Saturday at about 11.45am. 

She had been found with fatal stab wounds inside a home in Wagga Wagga, in southwest NSW.

Officers arrested an 18-year-old man at the home and he was taken into custody for questioning before later being released without charges.

A 31-year-old man was arrested almost nine hours later at another home in the regional city and was later charged with murder, police confirmed on Sunday.

The pair were in a relationship, investigators said.

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Beyond Brighton Pier, several dinghies were enjoying a spectacular day, skimming briskly across the waves.

Inside the stark concrete conference centre hosting the Liberal Democrats, however, the atmosphere was considerably more turbulent. Julian Brazil, leader of Devon County Council, delivered a bleak assessment of party leader Sir Ed Davey — and it was far from flattering.

Sir Ed, Mr Brazil complained, had “allowed other parties to go steaming past us”. The Liberal Democrats, he argued, had become “peripheral”, lacking ambition, courage and messages that connected with voters.

Welcome to the conference.

Have the famously patient Liberal Democrats finally begun to suspect that their 60-year-old leader is out of his depth?

After a three-hour lunch break — three hours, despite the party’s apparent lack of drinking — Sir Ed took part in a question-and-answer session chaired by former Radio 4 journalist Carolyn Quinn. She raised Mr Brazil’s warning that the party was “sleep-walking into irrelevance” under his leadership.

There was also a brief danger of Sir Ed sleep-walking into inaudibility: his microphone was not working properly.

A technician eventually appeared on stage and handed him a handheld microphone that functioned.

Once he could be heard, Sir Ed said he had known Mr Brazil for years, subtly implying that the Devon councillor had long been a difficult character. He described him instead as “a good local councillor”.

The apparent message was clear: concentrate on Devon matters, or risk losing the support of local colleagues. It was a pointed exchange, delivered to a quiet hall that was not full.

Guest interviewers at party conferences are not usually expected to conduct hostile interrogations, but Ms Quinn gave Sir Ed little room for comfort. She raised Labour’s reported plan for a mansion tax on properties worth as little as £1.5 million and observed that his constituents in affluent Kingston upon Thames would be paying close attention.

Sir Ed, whose strategy centres on staying close to Labour in the hope of securing the deputy premiership in a future coalition, appeared unwilling to criticise the Government directly. Instead, he returned to the subject of Brexit, prompting the familiar, wavering cheers from sections of the Lib Dem audience.

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Ms Quinn then challenged him on what appeared to be a retreat into familiar territory, asking whether he supported retaining the pensions triple lock. He said he did, but a seeming majority of those in the hall appeared to disagree. The exchange was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

With his forehead creased in discomfort, Sir Ed called it plainly a “controversial matter”. Some in the hall may have been left wondering whether Mr Brazil’s criticism had struck a chord: their leader seemed stodgy, yet not even aligned with all of his party’s instincts.

Other senior Liberal Democrats — if that description can be applied — appeared to have noticed the growing signs of dissent.

Daisy Cooper MP delivered the morning’s main speech with extraordinary energy. She waved her arms, crossed the stage, flashed her teeth, bounced up and down and shook her shoulders as if performing at a disco.

It felt less like a conventional political address than a Zumba class. Could Ms Cooper, a rapid-fire speaker with the gravitas of a television quiz show scoreboard operator, already be positioning herself for a possible leadership contest?

Josh Babarinde MP, the party’s president, was also drawing attention to himself, moving around the conference centre with a floppy-haired assistant following close behind.

Mr Babarinde, notably slim-waisted, adopted a more combative tone, declaring: “We’ve got to flip the table over and rise up!”

My, my, such bar-brawl talk from one so weedy. He looks as if he could barely flip a beer mat.

Ms Cooper, like Sir Ed, kept talking about dismantling Brexit. It’s their go-to response when they have nothing else to say.

She managed to get through her ‘keynote’ speech on the economy without mentioning welfare spending or defence budgets.

Instead, she bellowed about reducing regulation on businesses. That would be a splendid idea, no doubt, but the Lib Dems have seldom seen a regulation they did not like.

Melbourne influencers Tash and Marcus O’Brien have opened up about the devastating death of their first child, a baby boy named Billy.

Both bodybuilders, the couple had been eagerly preparing to meet their son following what Tash described as a “perfect pregnancy the whole way through”.

But a series of distressing events during her induction left their hopes of bringing Billy into the world alive shattered.

As they cope with the aftermath, Tash and Marcus have shared the heartbreak of losing their son and having to say goodbye.

Speaking to Daily Mail on Wednesday, personal trainer Tash said her pregnancy had been considered low-risk and was closely monitored through a midwife program, with regular appointments and ultrasounds.

When she reached 38 weeks, Tash asked whether she could be induced, saying she believed she would feel more reassured with her baby outside the womb.

“I just needed him out,” she recalled. “I felt that I could keep him safer on the outside.”

The couple were initially told that an induction could not be scheduled until Tash reached 41 weeks.

At an appointment on the Monday of that week, Tash said she was finding it difficult to feel Billy move as he grew larger.

Doctors examined the baby and found that he was moving happily before arranging the induction for Saturday.

However, Tash said she remained uneasy after returning home and contacted her midwife to ask whether the appointment could be brought forward.

The next morning, she received a call offering an induction on Thursday, with the birth expected to take place on Friday.

Although their regular midwife would not be present, the couple decided to go ahead.

“We trust that these other midwives, they’ve been doing it a long time, it’ll… let’s just get him out,” Tash said.

Tash went to hospital on Thursday for the induction and said Billy was alive and well on the monitor at the time.

But the couple became concerned during the insertion of the balloon catheter when several midwives went back and forth discussing how much water should be used.

“We were told the balloon was so safe, so safe,” Marcus said.

Tash said she experienced significant cramping after the balloon was inserted, although staff told her Billy was fine. She also noticed blood coming from the tube attached to the balloon.

When she reported the bleeding, she said she was told it was normal spotting and was sent home.

Tash recalled being in excruciating pain after arriving home. 

Later that evening, blood again gushed from the tube and ran down her leg.

She called the midwife who had inserted the balloon and reported both the bleeding and her pain.

According to Tash, she was told the symptoms were normal and that the blood was acceptable as long as it was coming through the tube.

‘I feel extremely let down,’ she said.

That night, Tash remained on the couch because she did not want to go to bed until she felt her baby move.

She said she was gently poking her belly and talking to Billy, asking him to give her a sign that he was okay.

At around 9pm, he kicked. ‘So I was like, okay, so I have to go to bed,’ she recalled.

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The next morning, Tash told Marcus she had not really felt Billy move.

She wondered whether the cramping was distracting her from his movements, but was eager to get back to hospital and have him checked.

After arriving at the hospital, Tash asked a midwife to check Billy before beginning the routine preparations for the induction.

The midwife attempted to find his heartbeat but nothing could be heard. Another midwife was called in, followed by two doctors with an ultrasound machine.

The scan confirmed that Billy had died.

‘It’s like the most devastating moment of my life,’ Tash said.

After the heartbreaking news, the couple spent several hours waiting before Tash underwent a caesarean section.

Later, the couple were able to see Billy.

‘He absolutely looks perfect,’ Tash said. ‘You could tell that he hadn’t been gone for long. Literally just like he’s sleeping.’

The couple spent the next four days in hospital with their son.

‘We got to give him as much love as we possibly could,’ Tash said.

But after Billy was taken for his autopsy, the couple returned home.

‘We came home to an empty house,’ Tash said.

Tash and Marcus have raised concerns about the care Tash received during the induction and the advice she was given after reporting pain and bleeding.

They said they are awaiting the autopsy and coroner’s report before deciding whether to pursue any legal action.

‘If we find that there’s evidence that I should have been more supported, then it’s maybe something that we will look into,’ Tash said.

‘But at the moment, we’re just trying to get through day by day.’

The couple have been connected with counselling and Red Nose, while Marcus’s family has organised a GoFundMe campaign to help cover Billy’s funeral.

They are also being supported by Tash’s usual midwife, who she described as ‘absolutely incredible’.

Despite the heartbreak, the couple said they have been overwhelmed by the support they have received since sharing Billy’s photographs.

‘It’s been overwhelmingly good,’ Marcus said.

For Tash, however, the pain remains raw.

‘Even if it was going to happen, if they got me in and I was checked, I would feel so much more reassured knowing that it happened while I was at the hospital, and there was nothing they could do. But I wasn’t even checked,’ she said. 

As they wait for answers, Tash and Marcus are facing the unimaginable task of grieving a baby they had spent months preparing to meet.

‘We’re broken,’ Marcus said. ‘We’re honestly just so, so heartbroken.’

Click here to donate to Tash and Marcus’ GoFundMe.