Loveland – Police were preparing an arrest warrant today for a person suspected of providing alcohol to a 12-year-old Loveland girl who died in January shortly after being cited for underage drinking.
The Larimer County coroner’s office said Wednesday that Nikole Berthoud died of a heart condition that can be caused by exposure to methamphetamine and made worse by alcohol consumption.
Nikole Berthoud of Loveland died of cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart or change in the heart’s structure, coroner’s investigator Dean Beers said Wednesday. There were no drugs in her system when she died Jan. 14, authorities said.
The exposure to methamphetamine could have happened without the girl’s knowledge, Beers said. Her grandmother, Kristy Berthoud, does not believe she used drugs.
Paramedics found Nikole Berthoud, a seventh-grader, passed out in a driveway after a resident called 911 the afternoon of Jan. 14, authorities said. They released her to her father after police issued a summons for underage drinking, said Loveland police Sgt. Rae Bontz.
Several hours later, paramedics and police were called to Berthoud’s home after her family called 911. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
The coroner’s report said she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.009 percent, well below the 0.08 percent level at which a motorist is considered under the influence.
Beers said officials may never know how she was exposed to methamphetamine.
“It’s like secondhand smoking,” he said. “You can be exposed and suffer from lung cancer even if you’ve never smoked.” Police Detective Paul Arreola said today he was writing an affidavit to support an arrest warrant, which could be presented to prosecutors on Friday.
