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The Daily News crashed yesterday's funeral for 18-year-old NYU student Maria Pesantez, who died Friday after presumably injecting a lethal dose of heroin and cocaine. Pesantez's death is one of a recent slew of heroin-related overdoses downtown, and her family is understandably searching for answers:

"She was never involved in drugs or anything like that," her sister Karla, 15, said following Pesantez's funeral in Jackson Heights, Queens.

"I think she was tricked," Karla said. "I hope whoever did this to her pays the price."

Now, we don't want to be unsympathetic to Pesantez's family, all of whom are undoubtably suffering, or to her younger sister, who is clearly just trying to understand what has happened. But is this the best quote the Daily News could come up with? A 15-year-old's theory that Pesantez was tricked into injecting from a speedball-dripping syringe? We always thought these sorts of funeral pieces were supposed to elicit sympathy, not eye-rolling.

Sad Rites for Coed [NYDN]