Harleysville Man Arrested in Connection with Merck Employee Who Fatally Overdosed While at Work

Keith Heffintrayer | North Penn Now•

Kevin Daley, 42, of Lower Salford Township.

UPDATE: Jan. 27, 3:22 p.m. – In response to a request for comment from North Penn Now, a Merck spokesperson said they are cooperating fully with the authorities, adding they are also conducting an internal investigation of their own at the site.

“The employee in question has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation,” the spokesperson said.

Original story follows…

A Harleysville man is facing felony drug charges in connection with the fatal overdose of 36-year-old Trevor Edwards, whose body was found in December 2020 at a desk on the Merck campus in Upper Gwynedd Township.

Kevin Daley, 42, of Lower Salford Township, was taken into custody on Wednesday and charged with felony counts of possession with intent to distribute and criminal use of a communication facility, along with a misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance, in connection with Edwards’ death.

He’s currently free on $50,000 unsecured bail.

Investigators allege that during the evening of Dec. 26, 2020, Daley sold pills containing fentanyl to Edwards. Following the transaction, the two men exchanged hundreds of texts indicating they were both crushing up and snorting the fentanyl pills, with additional messages referencing the drug’s effects and Daley dealing with some negative effects of the drug, according to the 26-page criminal complaint.

At 7:23 a.m. the following morning, Edwards’ sent a text to Daley stating: "Been a while since I blacked out and went [on] a time warp,” the report states. Daley responded immediately by saying "I love it. Fentanyl baby. Fun s—t,” according to the complaint.

The report states a few minutes later, Edwards sent another to text to Daley asking if he was ok, in reference to the negative experience that he had from the drug. It was the last text Edwards would ever send, investigators said.

Upper Gwynedd Township Police were dispatched to Building 29 at the Merck campus on Sumneytown Pike at 6:16 p.m. on Dec. 27, 2020, for a report of an unconscious subject. Arriving police found Edwards body seated in a chair at his work desk, and an autopsy would later list Edwards’ cause of death as fentanyl toxicity and his manner of death as accidental.

According to his obituary, Edwards was a certified Master Plumber who graduated from Hamburg Area High School in 2002 and was working at Merck as a pipe fitter. Edwards was survived by a wife and two children.

Investigators spoke with Daley in a conference room on the Merck campus in April 2021, at which point Daley confirmed he was the owner of the phone that was sending messages to Edwards, the report states. Daley told investigators that he met Edwards in April 2019 while the two were working at Merck, and he had last spoken to him the night before his death, according to the complaint.

Charges were officially filed against Daley on Jan. 19. Court records indicate Daley is being represented by defense attorney Ryan L. Hyde, Esq., of the Hyde Tebay Law Firm.

Daley’s next court appearance is a preliminary hearing on Feb. 10 at 12:15 p.m. in front of District Judge Suzan Leonard.

North Penn Now has reached out to the media relations staff at Merck for comment. We will update this article accordingly when a response is received.

All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.