04/30/02

A faithful Widespread Panic follower hanged herself at a Homewood hotel over the weekend, one of two young women to die during the group's three-day stay.

Jennifer Susan Moe, 24, used a hotel shower curtain to hang herself from a second-story balcony at the Red Roof Inn on Oxmoor Road, said Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Jay Glass.

Authorities said Moe's friends told them she had been smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and had taken Ecstasy and cocaine. She was discovered about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, suspended from the outside railing at the rear of the hotel, Glass said. She left no suicide note.

Moe wasn't registered at the hotel, but went there to party with friends after Friday night's concert at Oak Mountain Amphitheater, authorities said. She had been moving from concert to concert.

"She'd been following them for a long time," said her father, Jerry Moe, from his Minnesota home.

Police said Erica Young, 29, of Chattanooga died Saturday night after taking Ecstasy. She collapsed about 10 p.m. inside the amphitheater during the concert and died minutes later. Shelby County Coroner Doug Ballard Jr. said Monday it appeared Young died of a drug overdose.

Police had tried to clamp down on drugs and alcohol at the weekend shows that attracted more than 30,000 fans known as Spreadheads.

The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, working with the Pelham Police Department, made about 200 arrests over the weekend during Operation Don't Panic. Police confiscated large amounts of cocaine, LSD, Ecstasy, marijuana, OxyContin and other drugs.

Officers from Hoover, Alabaster, the Calhoun County Drug Task Force, Shelby Juvenile Probation and Court Services, Shelby District Attorney's Office and Shelby Sheriff's Department also participated. The operation included dozens of uniformed and undercover officers.

"We all worked together," said Pelham Capt. E.A. Thomas Jr. "We have a common goal: That's to enforce the law and provide a safe place for people to come and enjoy themselves."

Widespread Panic fans said Monday in e-mails, Internet chat rooms and interviews that the deaths were tragic, but had nothing to with the band. They said that news coverage surrounding the drug arrests painted a misleading picture of the concerts.

"Drugs are one element, but they are not the only element," said Brad Williams, 24, of Birmingham, who attended all three shows. "It's more about the music than the drugs."

ABC agent Mike Reese disagreed that the concerts were innocuous.

"Try telling that to the parents of Erica Young," Reese said Monday. "How many more kids are going to die before parents wake up and realize how the dangerous these concerts are?"