Log in to WRAL.com with one click using your favorite social network:
OR
Log in using your WRAL.com account:



Wrong email/password combination.

Forgot password?

Register with WRAL.com using your favorite social network:
OR
Register for a WRAL.com account using our web form.

1:55 p.m. • 5-24-13

Weather Forecast for Raleigh

  • Today: Partly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 72° F
  • Sat: Clear.
    • Hi: 72° F
  • Sun: Partly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 75° F

Other Locations

> 7 Day Forecast

Doppler Image

Published: 2012-10-15 17:08:00
Updated: 2012-10-16 23:35:19

Apex High student dies after drug party


Timothy Castaneda
Timothy Castaneda
print friendly

The Wake County District Attorney is considering additional charges against an Apex teenager who allegedly sold the drugs that killed a friend.

According to Apex police, Timothy Castaneda, 17, was partying with friends in the woods Oct. 6 behind the Beaver Creek Cinemas when he collapsed. Police estimate as many as a dozen teens may have been present at the party, but three remained with Castaneda until police arrived just before 2 a.m.

The trio, in separate interviews with police, said Castaneda called Ryan John Laches, who delivered LSD to the party. Castaneda took the drug and later, his friends said, he began "freaking out." 

In a call to 911, friends described Castaneda as "having a seizure," foaming and bleeding from the mouth. The caller told an emergency dispatcher that he had taken two hits of acid about 3 to 4 hours prior. 

Laches, 17, is charged with two counts of selling a controlled substance. According to Apex police, Laches, a senior, was arrested at Apex High School in March on a marijuana possession charge.

After Castaneda was hospitalized, police searched the home Laches shares with his parents, at 1006 Double Spring Court, in Apex, and seized a phone, a charger and some notes.

Castaneda died a week later. He was also a student at Apex High School.

A wake is planned Wednesday evening at Apex Funeral Home. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. Andrew The Apostle Catholic Church, 3008 Old Raleigh Road, with burial to follow in Wake Memorial Park.


147 Comments


WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

View Comments VIEW ALL 147 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments.

Latest Comments
don't worry about the zombies on here Brian. us NORMAL adults on here know that your brother was a perfectly typical good kid. terribly sorry for your family's loss. even more sorry for the mindless comments some of these sheep are saying

"jms7469, something is very very wrong with all of this and a good kid is not described in the article I read. Loving parents @ 2am, are you kidding me?" -DaveTonyNC

oh c'mon, get your head out of the clouds. and mind your own business. ALL.KIDS.SNEAK.OUT. PERIOD!! i'm sure the parents are great people. who are you to judge.

How can you guys say bad stuff about someone you don't know. You guys take what the news says and not what all of the friends and families say. You people are so ignorant. I am Brian, Tim's older brother. Let me start by telling you guys a little about Tim. He was a good kid and he was a good brother to me and Steven. He was not disrespectful to any of us or my parents at all. He had a lot of friends that he cared about and who cared so much about him. He did good in school and didn't ever get into trouble, and most importantly he was NOT a drug addict, he was just a normal teenager who wanted to have fun with his friends and it went the wrong way. He didn't know this would happen, if he knew that it would, i know he wouldn't have done it. Don't tell me that any of you people don't make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes, sometimes the cost is more than others. In this case its the worst.

All of the kids know who the dealers are in their own school. It's common knowledge. Wouldn't it be nice to out them in mass and eliminate them from the schools and preferably the community. Not the users, the ones that have taken it to the level of dealing. No punishment is too harsh for them. Kids or not they are destroying lives, and not just those that die. My heart goes out to Tim's family.

"LSD can trigger the onset of schizophrenia. That's what happened to Syd Barrett and Peter Green.

They had mental issues already!

View Comments VIEW ALL 147 COMMENTS