What happened to Tara Fitzgerald? Details of 17-year-old teenager's death on Dateline, explored

There have been multiple drug overdose cases over the years, and one of the Dateline episodes covered the tragic incident from 2014, when a 17-year-old, Tara Fitzgerald, was enjoying a sleepover with her friend. The night that was supposed to be fun, unexpectedly turned out to be deadly.

The subject of the Dateline episode, 'One Small Dose,' Tara Fitzgerald was a student at Woodbury High School in Minnesota. Her parents, Tom and Mai Fitzgerald, shared what was their daughter like. As per Oxygen True Crime, the deceased teenager's father described:

"Tara was a really energetic kid from a young age. She liked to do skateboarding and the climbing walls."

The couple knew that Tara and her friends were having a sleepover, and the only motive was to enjoy the company. However, they were completely unaware that their daughter was hiding something and was involved in buying drugs.

The sleepover took place in January 2014, in the basement of the teenager's house, where she and one of her friends tried a drug believing it was LSD. As revealed in the Dateline episode, it turned out that the girls unknowingly consumed 25i-NBOMe, which is often mistaken for LSD.

Dateline episode dives into the drug overdose case of teenager Tara Fitzgerald

The teenager unknowingly took the wrong drugs (Image Source: NBC)

Drug usage is one of the major issues in the United States, especially among high school students who, once caught in it, often remain trapped for a long time. However, in Tara Fitzgerald's case, the teenager didn't even get the chance to seek help when she consumed 25i-NBOMe thinking it was just LSD.

Dateline has been covering shocking crime stories for decades, and its 'One Small Dose' covers the story of Fitzgerald's death. As mentioned above, the teenager and her friend consumed the drug, and about two hours later, Tara began to have muscle spasms and started moaning.

Despite seeking Tara's parent's help, her friends called another acquaintance for assistance, but it was already too late. As shared by a friend of Tara:

"The main purpose of having the sleepover was to try it, to try the drug."

Her friends couldn't help and the next morning Tom and Mai discovered that their daughter had passed away. As highlighted by the Dateline episode, she was taken to the hospital but due to the complications and toxicity of the drug, nothing helped.

Woodbury Police Chief, Lee Vague, also believed that the youngsters didn't know what they were buying. He also mentioned his concern, saying young people think drugs are safe, which they aren't in any way. He said (Per MPRnews):

"You're buying this piece of paper with something on it, and somebody tells you it's LSD or whatever it is. There's no way you can know that. There's no way you can know how much is on it. There's no way you can know where this was sourced from."

What is even more heartbreaking was that 25i-NBOMe was declared to be illegal, yet drug sellers didn't stop. While Tara didn't know what she bought, the dealer was aware of the drug being circulated among the students.

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Who was responsible for Tara Fitzgerald's death?

Dateline reveals how a single drug use killed a teenager (Image Source: NBC)

Though Tara Fitzgerald consumed the drug by herself, she wasn't aware that it was 25i-NBOMe. Soon after her death, an investigation began, and five individuals including two adults, Alexander Lee Claussen, and, Cole Alexander Matenaer, and three juveniles: Sydney Claire Johnson, Alistair Curtis Berg, and Brian Phillip Norlander were charged as they all had a role in the distribution chain.

While the police received around 300 doses of drugs at Alexander Lee Claussen's place, the Dateline episode revealed that Tara bought the drug from Cole Alexander Matenaer. He even confessed to selling her the drug and contributing to her tragic death.