Tiffin Police Department investigates woman's death

Tiffin Police Department is investigating a woman's death. About 4:35 p.m. Monday, a woman advised the police department she received a phone call from a man saying he was lying next to an unresponsive woman, according to a police report. Officers responded to 221 First Ave. They found Todd Duffey, 40, was living in what appeared to be an old storage room attached to the former service garage bays for a closed business formerly known as First Avenue Towing, according to a search warrant filed in Seneca County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday. Tiffin Fire Rescue Division pronounced Tabetha M. Matthews, 35, deceased, according to court records and the police department. The search warrant states Duffey told police he did not know what happened and that Matthews had arrived to hang out with him. He told police he fell asleep, and she was unresponsive when he woke up, it states. The initial assessment at the scene was that Matthews died of an overdose, and Duffey denied drug use and said he did not know what Matthews had done, according to the search warrant. Lt. Detective Mark Marquis, who obtained the search warrant, believed crimes of drug abuse and drug paraphernalia were committed, and an investigation was under way to determine whether involuntary manslaughter was committed, the search warrant states. Among the items the search warrant yielded included a syringe, a foil wrap containing a crystalline substance, a spoon and white residue, a metal cap containing a crushed white pill and digital scales, according to the search warrant. Seneca County Coroner's Office assisted.