Teens' deaths drug and alcohol related: police

Toxicology test results suggest the deaths of two teenage Metro Vancouver friends within hours of each other in early March were linked to "a lethal combination of alcohol and drugs," RCMP said Friday.

Kayla Lalonde, 16, and Martha Jackson Hernandez, 17, died in separate parts of Metro Vancouver after partying together earlier in the night.

Neither showed any signs of trauma, leading police at the time to speculate that drug overdoses or complications might have been involved.

Friends of the two said they suspected that the drug ecstasy might have been involved in the teens' deaths, but police did not specify Friday what drugs were found in the tests.

"Further details into the investigation are not being released so as to protect the integrity of the investigation," said RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Pound.

"It appears the cause of death for both girls is a lethal combination of alcohol and drugs," said Pound.

Lalonde was found lying on a street in south Burnaby about 1 a.m. on March 2 and died later in hospital. Hernandez died several kilometres away in a Richmond hospital later that morning.

A friend of Hernandez said after their deaths that ecstasy use was out of character for both teenagers.

The police investigation soon focused on where the deceased pair had been and who they had been with the night before they died.

No arrests have been made.