Crime & Safety

Flesh-Eating Crocodile Woman Back in Jail—But Just on Ordinary Heroin Charge

A woman who told Patch how the flesh-eating crocodile drug ravaged her body is back in jail but she looks a lot better than the last time we saw her.

A Joliet woman whose body was ravaged by the flesh-eating crocodile drug was back in jail Thursday—but only for allegedly possessing ordinary heroin.

Amber Neitzel, 27, said in October that she was unwittingly shooting crocodile for a year and a half before she and her sister, Angie Neitzel, 30, were hospitalized with grievous wounds.

Crocodile is a heroin substitute concocted by combining codeine tablets and gasoline, paint thinner, lighter fluid or other substances. It consumes and rots away the skin of users, according to a press release that was distributed by Presence St. Joseph Medical Center.

The drug "destroys a user’s flesh and leaves gangrene and large abscesses all over a user's body," the release stated.

Find out what's happening in Jolietwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Find out what's happening in Jolietwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Illinois State Police arrested Amber Neitzel Wednesday on the felony heroin charge.

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