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Burkhardt Pleads "No Contest" In Drug Case

Meri Jeanne Burkhardt, 34, was on the sending end of 9 oxycodone tablets hidden in a box of dead, frozen mice bound for Dillingham in April.

DILLINGHAM:  Meri Jeanne Burkhardt, 34, of Anchorage entered a plea of “no contest” Monday to a charge of Attempted Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree, a class B felony. 

Burkhardt was arrested in April after she took a box of frozen, dead mice to the Pen Air terminal in Anchorage. She asked an unwitting passenger to carry the box on the plane to a friend in Dillingham, saying the mice were for a pet snake. The passenger discovered 9 half tablets of oxycodone hidden inside the box, beneath the mice, and contacted authorities.

Oxycodone is commonly used as a substitute for heroin, and the half tablets have a street value of $100 each in Dillingham.

Burkhardt posted $5,000 bail in May and was released from custody. She is scheduled to be sentenced in October. 

Lindsay Sifsof, 22, of Dillingham was the intended recipient of the box with the snake food and illicit contents. Sifsof is facing a slightly lesser charge for attempted possession of a controlled substance; her case is still pending.