MONROE — A trial date still has not been set for the local man accused of supplying the alleged fentanyl that killed a 32-year-old Monroe man Aug 23.

Levi Janssens, a Monroe native who was living in Verona at the time, faces reckless homicide charges, a class C Felony in Wisconsin, for his role in the incident. That’s when the victim, Daniel Kundert of Monroe, died in a hotel room on the city’s east side — not long after allegedly ingesting the drug Janssens stands accused of supplying.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid similar to — but many times more powerful — than heroin. Such overdose deaths have skyrocketed across the country — with deaths involving opioids such as fentanyl soaring by 22% in 2021. Overall, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 108,000 died of a drug overdose in the 12-month period, ending last July.

Many of those deaths happened to habitual drug users who weren’t aware that what they had was fentanyl, as opposed to street heroin. And the drug also has been laced into or sold as other substances — even pressed into pill form.

Police caught Kundert the same day as the overdose death, following a quick investigation using the victim’s phone and reportedly setting up a controlled buy for more of the substance before word of the death was made public.  That quick arrest involved work by Monroe detectives, along with the multi-state drug task force known as SLANT, the chief said.

Prior to his death, Kundert’s long-time struggle with drugs led to the creation of a group called Fighting Addiction It Takes Help (FAITH) to raise awareness of the issue and provide support to those impacted by opiate abuse. Kundert was a 2008 graduate of Monroe High School.

A guilty plea was entered on Janssens’ behalf According to court records, Janssens was released on a $15,000 bond shortly after the arrest. His next appearance in Green County Circuit Court is set for 8:30 a.m. Jan 17.

While it wasn’t the first time Monroe has encountered fentanyl among the drug using population, such overdose deaths are still relatively rare here, according to Monroe Police Chief Fred Kelly.

“We hear about it on the street, we just haven’t seen much of it,” he said.

Still, it does show up from time to time, Kelley said. And to help counter the overdose threat, Kelley said police officers in Monroe all carry doses of the drug Narcan, which they have used in past cases a handful of times.

Kelley said the threat posed by the synthetic opioid is still very real, although Monroe has been spared somewhat by what has become a national epidemic — in part because it is such small town and not adjacent a major urban area.

“We are lucky we are not a direct suburb of a large metro area,” such as Rockford of Madison, he said. “Sometimes its nice to be a rural city.”