OXFORD, Miss. â The deaths of two University of Mississippi students on the same day are under heightened scrutiny after court records revealed that SMAX Pseudo-DHM tablets were found in both investigations and that both students had purchased the product before they died.
Tragic Ole Miss student bought Smax Pseudo-DHM kratom from raided store: court docs https://t.co/y9VqvZI1BK pic.twitter.com/u939WmxFMG
— New York Post (@nypost) September 29, 2026
Aidan Hamilton, 18, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, and Robert Strang, 20, a junior from Atlanta, died in separate incidents on September 21. Hamilton was found unresponsive inside Stewart Hall on the Ole Miss campus, while Strang was found at an off-campus residence in Oxford.
Authorities are now examining the tablets, the stores that sold them and other substances found during the investigations. Toxicology results are still pending, and officials have not determined that SMAX or any specific drug caused either death.
Court records trace SMAX purchases before the deaths
Newly released affidavits say packages labeled SMAX Pseudo-DHM were recovered during both investigations.
Hamilton’s financial records showed purchases at Puffs Vape Tobacco & Beer in Oxford on September 9, September 14 and September 20. Strang’s records showed purchases at Express Mart No. 7 in Yalobusha County on September 9 and September 11.
The overlap has become a key focus for investigators, but purchase records alone do not prove that either student consumed the tablets immediately before death or that the products were responsible.
Investigators look at Strang’s final hours
Court records also provide more detail about what investigators found at Strang’s residence.
Authorities reported numerous nitrous oxide canisters at the property. A roommate also told investigators that Strang had taken a Xanax bar earlier that day, according to the affidavit.
Those details could become important when toxicology results are completed because investigators may need to consider multiple substances rather than a single product.
Oxford store raided after undercover purchase
The investigation quickly expanded to retailers connected to the students’ purchases.
Officers conducted undercover purchases at stores linked through financial records. At Puffs Vape Tobacco & Beer in Oxford, a confidential informant bought kratom-related pills on September 24.
The affidavit alleges that an employee warned the informant to be careful with the pills because people were dying from them. That statement remains an allegation in court records and is not proof that the tablets caused either student’s death.
Agents later searched the Oxford business and seized more than 500 units described as kratom products, along with THC cartridges, gummies, other suspected controlled substances and $1,799 in cash.
Two employees, Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Yahya Mosleh, 18, were arrested on allegations involving possession with intent to distribute Schedule I controlled substances.
The arrests relate to the products investigators say were sold or possessed and do not establish criminal responsibility for Hamilton’s or Strang’s deaths.
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Preliminary testing detects 7-OH
Laboratory testing has added another important layer to the case.
According to court records, preliminary testing detected 7-hydroxymitragynine, known as 7-OH, in some pills obtained during the investigation.
The initial laboratory was unable to test for several other compounds listed on product packaging, including MGM-15, meaning additional testing is needed before investigators can determine exactly what the tablets contained.
That distinction matters because SMAX products have sometimes been discussed alongside kratom, even though concentrated or manufactured opioid-like compounds are not the same as traditional botanical kratom leaf.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced emergency Schedule I controls in August for MGM-15, MGM-16 and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, describing them as potent opioid compounds.
the investigation is drawing wider attention
The case is raising broader questions about products sold in vape shops, convenience stores and gas stations, particularly when packaging may use terms associated with kratom while containing highly concentrated or manufactured compounds.
Kratom sales are already restricted locally in Oxford and Lafayette County, and Mississippi law limits legal kratom sales elsewhere in the state to adults 21 and older.
Both Hamilton and Strang were under 21.
The investigation follows growing concern over concentrated kratom-related products and hidden compounds. A separate FDA-related recall involving undeclared kratom compounds highlighted similar questions over product labeling and consumer risk.
An earlier Ole Miss student death investigation update also detailed the initial discovery of kratom-related products as authorities began tracing where they had been purchased.
Toxicology results could provide the key answers
The most important evidence is still outstanding.
Toxicology testing could determine which substances were present in each student’s system and whether any played a role in the deaths. Separate laboratory testing may also establish whether the SMAX products recovered by investigators contained 7-OH, MGM-15 or other compounds.
Until those results are released, authorities have not confirmed that SMAX, kratom, 7-OH, MGM-15 or any other substance caused either death.
The two cases remain separate death investigations, but the shared SMAX purchases have given investigators a significant lead as they work to determine what happened and whether the products themselves present a wider public-safety concern.
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