Lee Johnson died of a heroin overdose in November. He was 48 and lived in Affton. As best his family can put the story together, he died the first time he used the drug.

His father was a police officer. Mike Johnson spent 31 years as a cop in St. Louis. For part of that time, he was a homicide detective.

Lee was his oldest son.

Lee graduated from CBC high school and joined the Marine Corps. He served in peace time and received an honorable discharge.

He became a manager at a warehouse in Illinois. He was quiet and sometimes held himself a little apart at family gatherings — his father remarried twice and Lee was one of 10 kids in the melded family — but he did not seem to be a particularly troubled man.

He got married when he was 37. He and his wife had three kids. He was a devoted father.

But the marriage disintegrated. Four years ago, his wife took the kids and moved to Florida to be with her parents. The couple remained married but estranged.

Lee became increasingly depressed. He went to the VA for help. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Also, post-traumatic stress disorder. He told his father he had been abused as a child by a gym teacher.

He was fired from his warehouse job in June. He told his family he had been falsely accused of yelling at a boss. He cashed in his 401(k) and used that money for living expenses.

In November, he checked into a psychiatric ward at a local hospital. He was released after a week. His father, and his father's wife, Mary, picked him up from the hospital. They said he was in good spirits and seemed determined to get his life back on track.

When Lee spoke with his father on the telephone later, he said he had met a young woman in the hospital. He described her as a recovering heroin addict. His father warned him about associating with such a young woman. That was the last conversation Mike had with his son.

Four days after he was released from the hospital, Lee visited one of his sisters and borrowed a hair dryer. He said it was for his girlfriend.

Several days later, after Lee had not answered his phone for a couple of days, one of his brothers went to Lee's house and found the front door unlocked. Lee's body was on the living room floor.

The county police found no drugs or drug paraphernalia. They did find a lighter under Lee's body. He did not smoke.

Toxicology reports showed that Lee had died of a heroin overdose. Mike had not forgotten how to be a detective. He soon learned the name of the recovering heroin addict. She was 28, a dancer at a club on the east side.

Mike had no doubts that his son had made a fatal error of judgment and had voluntarily taken the heroin. But Mike also figured that the young woman had to have been there when Lee collapsed. Why else would the scene be clear of all drugs and paraphernalia?

Mike was tormented by the thought that had the young woman called 911, Lee might still be alive.

Mike said he had little luck getting anybody interested in the case. A detective talked with the woman by phone. She denied knowing anything about Lee's death. An investigator in the prosecuting attorney's office told Mike there were a couple of warrants out for the woman and said he had put a note in the file that if and when she was brought in for the warrants, he wanted to talk to her.

But that was it. Mike said he understands these cases are difficult to prosecute, but had not the county successfully prosecuted one of these cases recently?

Last Friday, Paul Tripp was sentenced to two years for abandonment of a corpse for leaving behind a friend who died of a heroin overdose.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said the cases were very different. Tripp was seen leaving a bar with the victim and admitted leaving her body in a field after she died of an overdose.

In the Johnson case, there is no evidence the young woman was present when Johnson took the heroin, McCulloch said. He added that a neighbor told police she saw Johnson saying goodbye to a young woman and then never saw Johnson or the young woman again.

As far as no paraphernalia, it was impossible to know how the heroin was ingested because of the body's decomposition. There might have been no needle involved.

Despite the former detective's instincts, it appears his son's death will remain a mystery.