Woman Arrested in Man’s Death by Drug Overdose

A Mission Hills woman who police said dragged a man out of a motor home after injecting him with a fatal drug overdose was arrested on suspicion of murder early Wednesday, authorities said.

Patricia Sue Graisa, 39, was held without bail following the death of the 40-year-old man, whose name was withheld pending notification of his relatives, Lt. Thomas Maeweather said.

Graisa was arrested after police were called to the 10400 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills by passersby who reported seeing a woman dragging a body out of a motor home parked next to a bowling alley, Maeweather said.

When officers arrived about midnight Tuesday, they found Graisa inside the motor home and the body beneath some nearby bushes. The man was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center where he was pronounced dead of a drug overdose. “The evidence is boiling down to she being the one who injected him,” Maeweather said.

Maeweather declined to say what drug killed the man and said detectives had not yet determined if the overdose was accidental or intentional. He said investigators will present the case to the district attorney’s office today for the filing of charges.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron Jenkins said fatally injecting someone with a drug is considered second-degree murder under California laws governing “inherently dangerous acts,” but often such cases result in convictions for involuntary manslaughter, which carries a penalty of up to four years in prison. Jenkins said a person whose intent was to kill someone with an overdose can be charged with first-degree murder.