After the recent overdose death of a 22-year-old man, Porter County police are investigating whether a tainted batch of heroin blamed for a dozen deaths in Chicago has leaked into northwest Indiana.

Shawn Polewski was found dead from a heroin overdose at a Portage home Saturday. He was a 2002 Portage High School graduate and an Ivy Tech College student.

Polewski’s death marked the second overdose death in Porter County blamed on heroin in the past week. Meaghan Green, 19, of Chesterton, was found dead at her home Jan. 30.

Robert Taylor, coordinator of the Porter County narcotics unit, said he had ordered laboratory tests to determine whether the deaths were connected with a batch of heroin that has killed 12 people in Chicago in the past three weeks.

Authorities suspect the contaminated heroin was cut with a painkiller prescribed for cancer patients. Investigators said death comes within minutes to those who used the tainted narcotic.