Lab made designer drugs, two say

Police seized materials with labels indicating that they belonged to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with an array of illegal substances including ecstasy, LSD, and marijuana, inside a South Boston apartment, according to court papers filed yesterday.

Authorities had suggested that the apartment where Kevin McCormick, a 29-year-old MIT graduate, was found dead on Nov. 13 contained one of the largest crystal methamphetamine labs found in New England. It now appears, however, that the operation may instead have focused on making designer drugs, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The court papers, filed in South Boston District Court yesterday, reflect findings of a search warrant executed at the second-floor apartment at 369 Congress St. The papers include a 29-page list of the chemicals and articles seized by police and federal agents.

An MIT official said yesterday that the school planned to investigate how its materials -- a chemical substance and lab equipment -- came to be in McCormick's apartment.

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is spearheading an investigation with Boston Police, would not elaborate, except to say that McCormick's apartment contained a ''very sophisticated clandestine drug lab."

Among substances seized were the designer drug MMDA, which produces effects similar to mild LSD, and hallucinegenic mushrooms.

The investigators also found bottles with labels bearing the names of other psychedelic drugs.

It is not clear whether any of the drugs were being cultivated or made at the apartment.

One specialist not involved in the investigation said the manufacture of such drugs is rare on the East Coast. ''Almost exclusively, these labs are going to be in California, in the San Francisco area," said Gregory D. Lee, a former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and author of drug investigation texts.

For years, specialists say, enthusiasts of designer drugs have aimed to discover new drugs or alter existing ones to create the perfect high. The labs are typically extremely secretive.

Police found the South Boston lab after emergency medical workers called to the apartment found McCormick, dead from a heart attack during a sex act, surrounded by chains, wetsuits, and masks, as well as illicit drugs. Two of his roomates told police he had taken ecstasy hours earlier.

During their search of the apartment, investigators found pills and plastic capsules and nearly 7 1/2 gallons of chemicals, the court papers said.

In a freezer, investigators found what they believed to be LSD on blotter paper and in chocolate. They seized ''manufacturing notes" found on a lab bench, paperwork scattered on the floor of the apartment's main room, and a book from Psylocybe Fanaticus, based in the state of Washington, whose owner and employees were indicted in 2003 on charges of selling spores, syringes, and instructions for growing hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Investigators also found a digital scale and, in McCormick's bedroom, $226 in cash.

The MIT materials included liquid-cooling equipment in the main room and a container of a white powdered bromide.

Drug evidence was removed from McCormick's bedroom and from the rooms of the two roommates who were present when he died, Michael Brown and Dustin Ledbetter, another MIT graduate, the records reported.

In Ledbetter's room, they also found a gas mask next to his bed.

A DEA spokesman, Anthony Pettigrew, said no charges had been filed yet in the case, which is still under investigation.

An MIT spokeswoman, Denise Brehm, said yesterday that the school did not know that authorities had found MIT equipment.

''That compound and that piece of equipment are very common to many labs," Brehm said. ''If they were taken from MIT, we would want to determine from where and under what circumstances."

A telephone number listed at the apartment address was disconnected yesterday, and alternate numbers for Ledbetter and Brown could not be found.

McCormick's family members and friends memorialized the artist in a service Saturday at the MIT Chapel.

His parents, who had traveled from their home in Maryland for the service, did not speak, but his colleagues and his friends went to the chapel's microphone, one after the other, to share stories about McCormick.

He rarely smiled, they recalled. And he was usually more stressed than content. But he loved being around people, having guests at his wondrous apartment, where he made light sculptures, and where visitors felt as if they were in an otherworldly maze.

McCormick was not antisocial; he was ''desperately social," one mourner said. And he was brilliant, they all seemed to agree.

''Losing him was like losing a Jimi Hendrix far too young," said Justin Kent, a former colleague.

A handout at the door gave a reading from Albert Einstein, and a friend read it during the service.

''The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious," the friend read.

''It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed."

Maria Cramer of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.