Ali Mosdell's family met with a funeral director on Friday to make final arrangements for the young woman who died of a fatal overdose - while social media sites buzzed with reaction to the death of the 21-year-old.
Although police haven't officially released the name of the young woman who died Monday - two days after supposedly taking ecstasy - it is clear it was Mosdell from the memorial notes, flowers, and candles left at her family home in the Kanaka Creek area and the onslaught of Twitter and Facebook messages about her.
Mosdell, a 2007 graduate from Samuel Robertson Technical, was partying with friends on Saturday night [July 28] when she allegedly consumed a fatal mix of ecstasy and alcohol.
By early Sunday morning she was rushed to hospital where she died two days later on July 30.
On sticky notes posted on the Mosdell home and on Twitter, Mosdell is referred to as Mozzie. She has several Twitter accounts set up in her memory.
On Friday, July 27, the night before Mosdell overdosed, she answered a tweet about what time she would be off work on Saturday.
She wrote: "I should be off just after 6 tmo. Than it's partyyyy time" [sic].
Mounties and the coroner are still investigating her sudden death.
"This is a very sad case," said Ridge Meadows RCMP Supt. Dave Walsh.
"Initial information indicates the consumption of alcoholic beverages and illicit drugs may have played a prominent role in the death of this young woman," he explained.
"Police are working closely with health care professionals and the coroner on determining what caused this death."
While a toxicology report will take a number of weeks, both police and the coroner's office are warning that ecstasy is mixed with a number of chemicals that can be deadly when consumed.
In the past year, 10 people in Alberta, five in B.C., and one in Saskatchewan have died from PMMA-adulterated ecstasy, and a number of others have suffered non-fatal overdoses.
Arrests of two alleged small-time traffickers were made in February, but in early May RCMP in Penticton were warning the toxic party drug had surfaced there.
Walsh said police are not yet clear as to what was in the drugs the young woman consumed.
According to Barb McLintock of the B.C. Coroner's Service the big risk in buying ecstasy at places such as a rave is people don't know what it is mixed with.
"You buy it on the street and you don't have a clue how good it is," she said. "It is an odd drug and you can get an allergic-type reaction to it."
smclaren@mrtimes.com
