01-22-2011, 06:24 PM
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – An autopsy has determined the 23-year-old daughter of a North Carolina police chief died from a combination of heroin and cocaine.
Authorities looked for Valerie Hamilton for several days in September after she disappeared from a Charlotte tavern. They found her body in a nearby storage unit.
She was the daughter of Merl Hamilton, police chief of the Charlotte-area city of Concord.
Michael Harvey, a 35-year-old man police say was with Valerie Hamilton the night she was last seen, has been charged with murder.
The Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner released results of Hamilton's autopsy Friday. Pathologists determined the amount of cocaine and heroin found in her body was lethal and noted a needle mark on her right arm.