Pending the results of an autopsy, Roanoke Rapids Police Chief Bobby Martin said investigators are treating the death of Matthew Simms as an overdose.

The 29-year-old Roanoke Rapids man was one of three who had murder charges recently dismissed against them in the 2017 shooting deaths of four elderly victims in the Glenview area.

Martin said the police department received information on Monday that Simms was transported to Vidant North Hospital on Sunday after a drug overdose.

Investigators confirmed that Simms was transported to the Roanoke Rapids hospital. “Pending the results of an autopsy, we are treating it as an overdose death,” Martin said.

The dismissals for Simms, Keyon West, and Dontavious Cotton were based on the recantation of a previous statement made by defendant James Powell concerning the August 2017 murders of James and Janice Harris and James and Peggy Whitley. The four were shot and killed as they played a friendly game of cards at the Harris residence in the Glenview community of the Enfield area.

Powell is tentatively scheduled to appear in Halifax County Superior Court in May.