Today's paper is full of depressing crime news -- a portrait of a post-doctoral fellow as a drug addict, more news about the mayor's pending trial on corruption charges, a report that the teen suspects in the dog burning case may have gang ties, another city cop suspended, two charged with killing their landlord in Baltimore County, a community leader's battle to get a rec center reopened in a crime-infested neighborhood, a shooting in a strip club and a roundup of other mayhem.

I spent most of my day on Wednesday researching the University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher who died after apparently injecting herself with buprenorphine. The 29-year-old and her boyfriend, also doing post-doctoral work at the downtown school, used drugs including morphine and marijuana for years, according to police.

I think we all know that drug abusers come in alls shapes and sizes, but we prefer not to think about it. It's much easier to envision, and dismiss, the addict when we think of the junkie on the corner, and the violence that consumes this city over drugs. Carrie John (left, in the middle of the photo) and Clinton McCracken did not sand on street corners or carry guns, as far as we know. They bought drugs over the Internet, from the comfort of their rowhouse, according to police, without their relatives or neighbors knowing about their secret life.

Carrie's mother, who I reached by cell phone, talked openly about her daughter's apparent addiction, which she only found out about with a call from a Baltimore police officer telling her Carrie was dead. "These are two brilliant poeple who made a stupid error in judgment," she told me.

In court papers, McCracken told police he thought the couple could handle the drugs. Dr. Donald Janisky at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, summed it up best: "Anybody who handles drugs think they know how to control it." We wonder how two gifted people who studied drug addiction could wind up addicts themselves; it appears they thought that because they were smart enough to understand how drugs effect people's brains that they could get high responsibly.

It appears to have backfired on this couple; Carrie is dead and her boyfriend's career might be over. He faces several criminal charges in Baltimore and the feds are looking into the drug purchases overseas.

The rest of the news needs no further commentary -- click on the above links to read stories on the rest of the crime. The biggest mystery is why Baltimore's police commissioner suspended Maj. Roger Bergeron, the commander of the Southeastern District. Officials with the police union and on the City Council say they have no idea what might have happened.