Final Defendant Sentenced in Sauk Rapids Drug Overdose Case

FOLEY (WJON News) -- The last of three defendants charged in a drug overdose that killed a 16-year-old Sauk Rapids boy has been sentenced.

A Benton County judge has sentenced 34-year-old Fox Bellanger to six years and three months in prison for his role in the case. Bellanger previously pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree manslaughter.

Bellanger and the boy's mother, 38-year-old Crystal Swenson, were accused of selling him cocaine laced with fentanyl. Swenson was sentenced in June to more than three years in prison.

A third suspect, 48-year-old Anthony Costello, was given four years in prison after he was with the boy that night, found him unresponsive, and did not render medical aid.

THE INVESTIGATION

Sauk Rapids Police were dispatched to the 300 block of 10th Avenue North on March 2nd, 2024, on a report of an unresponsive person. Officers discovered the teenage boy lying on the floor outside a bathroom and not breathing.

Officers tried life-saving efforts, but say the boy was cold to the touch and appeared to have been dead for some time.

Costello told police that he had previously been in a romantic relationship with the boy's mother, and he and the boy had snorted cocaine prior to his death.

The charges further alleged the boy had made plans with his mother and Bellanger to buy cocaine from them.

Costello said when the boy returned to Costello's Sauk Rapids home at around 5:30 a.m., the two snorted cocaine together.

Records show Costello found the boy at around 9:30 a.m., making gurgling noises while on the floor, and he was unresponsive. Costello said that, despite pouring water on him and trying to get him to stand up, the victim wouldn't wake up, so he dragged him down the stairs and left the boy there so he could go to bed.

CAUSE OF DEATH

A medical examiner determined the teen died of fentanyl toxicity and cocaine use.