A Spirit Airlines pilot and wife died of overdoses of cocaine and carfentanil, a drug so powerful its primary use is to tranquilize rhinos and elephants, the Montgomery County Coroner’s office confirmed Tuesday. 
 
 >> NEW: ‘Speedball’ use by Centerville pilot not first at Spirit Airlines 
 
 >> EARLIER: Couple’s death may be fentanyl related 
 
 >> MORE: Spirit Airlines pilot’s overdose raises safety questions 
 
 Brian Halye, 36, and Courtney Halye, 34, were found dead in their Centerville home March 16 by their four children who reported the deaths to police. 
 
 The toxicology results confirm what the coroner’s office had previously hinted at: the commercial passenger airline pilot died of an accidental drug overdose. 
 
 The deaths came a week after Brian Halye’s last flight, prompting criticism of the random system used to test pilots. 
 
 Local health officials say the results are consistent with an increasing pattern of people using extremely powerful drugs, and combining potent opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil with cocaine and other drugs. 
 
 Cocaine, opioids deadly mix 
 
 The autopsy does not make clear if the Halyes knew the cocaine they were taking contained carfentanil — a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. 
 
 It does indicate, however, that both Halyes took the drug by injection. Courtney Halye had needle puncture marks on her right thigh and left wrist, the report shows, while Brian Halye had a single needle puncture mark on his right arm. 
 
 Intentionally injecting cocaine into the body with morphine, heroin or other drugs is known as a “speedball.” 
 
 The powerful concoction has killed celebrities, including former Saturday Night Live star John Belushi more than three decades ago. 
 
 Earlier this month, Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco warned Cincinnati-area cocaine users that their stashes could be cut with fentanyl or heroin without their knowledge, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. 
 
 Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson last week told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that he believed drug dealers may be mixing cocaine and fentanyl as a way to increase opioid addiction in the black community, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. 
 
 A small amount of carfentanil no larger than a grain of salt can kill. In July, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine warned police agencies across the state against handling or field testing street drugs that could contain dangerous levels of fentanyl or carfentanil. 
 
 In September, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a nationwide warning about the health and safety risks of carfentanil that can also resemble powdered cocaine. 
 
 “Just handling it can result in death,” Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County Coroner’s office, said at the time of the DEA’s warning. 
 
 Airline drug tests questioned 
 
 A Dayton Daily News examination after Halye’s death revealed airline pilots can go years without a drug test. 
 
 The toxicology and autopsy reports do not indicate if Halye had ever used drugs before flying an airplane, but it’s also unknown when Halye was last subjected to a drug test. 
 
 >> MORE: Spirit Airlines pilot may not have been drug tested in years 
 
 “The random nature of testing means that people can in fact get away with things like this,” said Ashley Nunes, a regulatory analyst with the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. “It’s certainly concerning to me someone could take cocaine, or have the lack of common sense to take cocaine and fly an airplane.” 
 
 “I suspect he is not the first and will not be the last,” Nunes said. 
 
 Spirit Airlines in March declined to answer the Daily News’ questions about Halye’s last flights, upcoming routes and the dates and results of any drug screenings. 
 
 Airlines officials in March said the pilot, who flew for the airline for nine years, captained his last Spirit Airlines flight six days before the overdose. 
 
 >> MORE: Airline pilots union fought drug testing for decades - and still does 
 
 Cocaine has been a factor in fatal passenger aviation accidents, even when consumed hours before takeoff. 
 
 In January 1988, Continental Air Express 2286 crashed in Colorado, killing the captain and eight others on board. The NTSB later determined the captain’s use of cocaine the night before contributed to the accident, which served to heighten calls for more drug testing. ||||| WASHINGTON - Drug dealers may be mixing cocaine with fentanyl to increase the prevalence of opioid addiction in the black community, Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Thursday. 
 
 In recent years, fentanyl was largely linked to deaths involving white people in suburban communities. However, data released Wednesday shows that within the past year, the drug has made inroads within the black community. 
 
 Fentanyl contributed to the deaths of 58 black people last year in Cuyahoga County, up from 25 in 2015. Just five black people died from fentanyl use in 2014, statistics show. 
 
 The rise is likely due to the fact that drug dealers are mixing fentanyl with cocaine, Gilson said. The mixture could result in a high number of black persons becoming addicted to opioids and using heroin and fentanyl, he said. 
 
 "Cocaine had been the only drug that victims were predominately African American," Gilson told the subcommittee. "The covert introduction of fentanyl into the cocaine supply has caused a rapid rise in fatalities and in 2017, the rate of African American fentanyl related deaths has doubled from 2016." 
 
 Gilson made the remarks while testifying at the hearing "Stopping the Shipment of Synthetic Opioids: Oversight of U.S. Strategy to Combat Illicit Drugs." Ohio Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, and Delaware Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat, are hosting the public hearing in front of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 
 
 Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic, was the primary reason 666 people were killed by drug overdoses last year in Cuyahoga County, up from 370 in 2015. The drug was a factor in 399 drug overdose deaths, up from 92 in 2015. 
 
 Opioids still kill far more white people than black people in Cuyahoga County; 85 percent of the people killed by fentanyl and 88 percent of the people killed by heroin last year were white, statistics show. 
 
 Cocaine also killed more white people than black people, but the numbers were less skewed. Only 70 percent of its victims were white, statistics show. 
 
 But cocaine deaths were more prevalent among black people when it was ingested alone, and not mixed with other drugs such as heroin or fentanyl. The 85 people killed by cocaine alone last year included 49 black people and 36 white people. Nearly 58 percent of the victims were black, statistics show. 
 
 Gilson told the Senate subcommittee Thursday that agencies will need to cooperate in order to fight the heroin and fentanyl epidemic, which has claimed thousands of lives in Cuyahoga County. 
 
 "The strategies to combat this crisis is not a matter of innovative creation but of sheer will, cooperation and adequate resources," he said. 
 
 If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section. 
 
 Please take a moment and click here to help the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, a cleveland.com partner. Every dollar you give buys four meals for the hungry. ||||| A Spirit Airlines pilot and his wife found dead by their children in March in their Ohio home overdosed on a lethal combination of cocaine and carfentanil, a powerful derivative of fentanyl often used to tranquilize rhinoceroses and elephants, PEOPLE confirms. 
 
 A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Coroner’s office tells PEOPLE that Ohio couple Brian and Courtney Halye combined the two potent substances. Their deaths have been ruled accidental. 
 
 After the couple were found dead by their children in their Centerville home, the coroner initially listed the preliminary cause of death as being “consistent with a heroin or fentanyl overdose.” 
 
 Brian, 36, was a pilot for Spirit Airlines. He married Courtney, 34, in 2012. They each had two children from previous relationships — he, two daughters and she, a son and a daughter. The children ranged in age from 9 to 13. 
 
 All of the children have been placed with relatives, according to state officials. 
 
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 On March 16, the Halye’s children peeked into their parents’ bedroom after the couple failed to wake them up for school. 
 
 After finding their unresponsive parents, the 13-year-old son called 911 and told the operator, “I just woke up and my two parents are on the floor.” 
 
 The Halyes died one week after Brian Halye’s last flight for the airline, according to officials. 
 
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 Medical examiners can not say for sure if the Halyes knew the cocaine they were taking had been laced with carfentanil, which is 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. 
 
 But both the husband and wife injected the drug. 
 
 A police incident report from January 2016 alleged that Courtney — a Type 1 diabetic — had a history of drug use. 
 
 The coroner indicates Courtney had needle puncture marks on her right thigh and left wrist, while Brian had a single puncture wound on his right arm. 
 
 In an interview in late March, Courtney’s friend, Monica Camacho, told PEOPLE she thought her friend had defeated her demons. 
 
 “I knew that they had their issues,” Camacho explained, “but I honestly thought that she had things under control. This is so shocking to everyone.”
– The reason four kids in Ohio woke up to find their parents dead: Brian and Courtney Halye not only injected cocaine, they injected cocaine laced with a tranquilizer so potent it's used on elephants and rhinos. The Montgomery County coroner has concluded that the Halyes used cocaine mixed with carfentanil, a lethal derivative of fentanyl, reports People. The coroner can't say whether the couple knew the cocaine was tainted, only that they injected a fatal dose. The story first made headlines in March not only because their four children, ages 9 to 13, found them on their bedroom floor but because Brian Halye, 36, was a pilot for Spirit Airlines who had flown just a week prior to his death. The Dayton Daily News notes that the deaths are consistent with a pattern of overdoses in which people combine opioids such as fentanyl and its derivatives with cocaine or other drugs. Carfentanil is particularly potent: 100 times more powerful than fentanyl and 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. Last month, the medical examiner in Ohio's Cuyahoga County told a Senate subcommittee that he believed drug dealers were secretly lacing cocaine with fentanyl to increase addiction in the black community, per the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It's not clear when Brian Halye had his last drug test as a pilot. (These 10 states have the biggest drug problems.)