Three people were found dead in a Voorhees Township hotel room Thursday afternoon from an apparent drug overdose, according to police.

Police went to check a room at the Wingate Inn on Laurel Oak Road around 12:45 p.m. after a concerned coworker called, saying the three people had not shown up for work, said Captain Carmen Del Palazzo, a spokesman for the Voorhees Township Police Department.

When police could not contact the three people, hotel staff assisted them in entering the room. There, they found the three deceased, police said.

"I've never seen a triple fatal like this," said Del Palazzo, who has been a police officer for 20 years and worked in the fire and emergency services previously. "It's an unfortunate thing that we in law enforcement are seeing on a daily basis across the country. There's no city, no town, no state that's safe."

He estimated that Voorhees Police had responded to about a half dozen overdoses last year, making the sudden jump in fatals even more notable in the township of about 30,000 people.

Del Palazzo said he could not disclose the ages or genders of the three people while in the process of notifying families. All three were from Toms River and were working in the area, he said.

Authorities are awaiting toxicology reports to determine what kind of substance was involved in the overdoses.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,056 people died of overdoses in 2016 in New Jersey, averaging about 5.6 people per day. That's a 42 percent increase from the 1,454 deaths reported in 2015. Total numbers for 2017 are not yet available.

The deaths remain under investigation by police and the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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