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Cleveland.com will examine the devastation that heroin and other opiates have wreaked on Northeast Ohio in a series of stories - Heroin's human toll: Families shattered by overdose deaths. Reporters will tell the stories of families shattered by addiction and the efforts to calm the storm.
- Adding some hope to the conversation about Northeast Ohio's opioid crisis
- Cuyahoga County's 'Know the Risks' campaign launches effort to help other communities battle heroin epidemic
- Ohioans in Congress push to expand treatment for opioid addiction
Cleveland mother says life after losing son will 'never, ever be the same'
Patricia O'Malley found out her son was using heroin in August 2014. Patrick had moved back to his family's home in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. He was arrested after he was caught stealing from the tip jar at the Broadview Heights bar where he worked. After Patricia O'Malley found out about her son's drug use, she lived in a state of constant worry and vigilance.
How mental illness, painkillers led to an addiction that destroyed a mother's life
Mary Jo Trocano spent two decades fighting mental illness and drug addiction. The 56-year-old's fight ended in March 2015 when she took a combination of heroin and other drugs and was found dead behind an abandoned Cleveland home.
Father says son's drug suppliers 'should be tried for murder'
Nicholas DiMarco was 18 when he died from a dose of heroin laced with fentanyl. He left behind a grief-stricken father tormented by questions.
Akron mom began opiate addiction following post-pregnancy surgery
Jessica Canada Holmes started taking painkillers after she had surgery to remove a cyst that developed on her lower back while she was pregnant with her son Carter. Her family says it was the first time the Kenmore High School graduate took an opiod. Two years later, her sister Savannah Holmes found the 20 year old dead in her bedroom from snorting fentanyl that she thought was heroin.
Euclid man apologized to father two days before overdose
In the last conversation Steve Simcak had with his son, Stephen "Stosh" Simcak texted his father that he wanted to get clean. "I know I did nothin but disappoint u my whole life and i wanna be that son you can be proud of if its not too late," Stosh, then 25, wrote on April 27, 2015. His father replied, "U still have a chance to turn it around." Two days later, Stosh took a fatal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin at his Euclid apartment.
Lorain woman's overdose death motivated mother to save second daughter
When Lori Guest's daughter Tera died of a heroin overdose, she said she couldn't let grief consume her or she risked losing another daughter who struggled with the same addiction.
Husband's fatal crash started Akron woman on path to pills and heroin
Jennifer Perez was the prototypical housewife. She cared for three kids, kept the house spotless and lived for hosting family gatherings, especially holidays. Her glazed ham and pistachio pudding were unrivaled. That all changed when her husband died in a drunken-driving crash in Indiana. She began taking prescription pain pills. That led to heroin. Perez was 35 when she died on April 30, 2015 of a fentanyl overdose in Akron. She left behind three children ages 16, 14 and 11.
Akron son regrets not speaking up about father's opioid abuse
Ray Holmes worked as a bricklayer for more than a quarter-century. The toll it took on his body led to an 18-year prescription pain pill addiction. His 25-year-old son never said a word about it to anyone.
Workplace injury left Lorain man addicted to painkillers, heroin
Lori Beecher-McGinnis first learned that her son used heroin the night she found him dead. Brandon McGinnis took painkillers to ease discomfort from a debilitating workplace injury. But Lori never thought her son -- who even had a fear of needles -- would use heroin.
Car crash left Lorain woman addicted to painkillers
Nancy Krasienko knew what happened the moment she looked in her husband's eyes. Earlier she'd received a call that their daughter -- who had been addicted to painkillers and heroin for nearly a decade -- was found unresponsive. He'd gone to check on her and returned home looking distraught. "I told him 'don't, don't, don't. I can't," Krasienko said. "He said 'Mama, I think she's gone.'" Megan Wheeler, 30, died April 6, 2015 after overdosing on a drug cocktail in her apartment.
A North Olmsted hockey player's last relapse, a mom's broken heart
It was a Saturday, the same weekend his mother went to speak to the hockey moms and dads about her son's struggles. She didn't learn until Monday about his fatal overdose, and that her son had become one of 228 people to overdose on heroin, fentanyl or a combination of the two last year in Cuyahoga County.
Akron North High quarterback died from heroin overdose
Brett Taylor brought people together, both with the toughness displayed as a quarterback for North High School and his care-free attitude off the gridiron. He was the starting quarterback for struggling North teams in the early 2000s. He garnered some interest from colleges his senior season but instead opted to play semi-pro ball for the Barberton Bulldogs. He was the father of three kids, lived with his girlfriend in Lakemore and worked for Cardinal Asphalt up until he died June 20, 2015 of a drug overdose from heroin, alcohol, cocaine and morphine. He was 30.
Maple Heights man's bipolar diagnosis contributed to addiction
Tony Sabat appeared to be on the road to recovery when he arrived home from a six-week stint at a treatment center in Florida. All of his counselors were optimistic about his future. So it came as a shock when his mother Cindy Heijl found him dead two days later.
Akron woman finds peace after sister's death from lifelong addiction
Dawn Rodgers, three years her sister's junior, spent most of her life kicking in doors at drug houses around Akron to try to keep her sister from using crack cocaine. She threatened other users. She told judges to keep her sister in jail so she could stay clean. But Shelly Rodgers never overcame her addiction. She began using heroin in 2015, and died June 27 of that year of a fentanyl overdose at her home. She was 48.
Young Cleveland mother prescribed painkillers at 16
A doctor gave a then-16-year-old Brandi Bradley her first prescription for pain pills in 1996 after she was diagnosed with chronic pain and depression following the birth of her first child. "They prescribed her Vicodin, Xanax and Ambien," her sister Karrie Bradley said. "We're talking about a 16 year old." Within a year, she was an addict. When doctors stopped prescribing her pills, she bought them on the street. When the street drugs became too expensive, she switched to heroin.
Cleveland mother 'hunted' missing son for weeks before overdose death
Camelia Carter spent the final weeks of her 25-year-old son Rusty James "R.J." Parker's life hiding in bushes and knocking on doors of drug houses across Cleveland's southwest side. He disappeared in early May. "I hunted him like an animal for 17 days," she said. The hunt ended on May 29, when Parker took a lethal combination of heroin and fentanyl in a house in Cleveland's Bellaire neighborhood.
Cleveland woman wants to treat heroin epidemic like emergency
It's been five months since Camelia Carter's 25-year-old son died of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl. In the time since he died, she's had a lot of time to think about how other mothers might avoid losing their sons and daughters to the same opioid epidemic.
Coventry Township mom dies of overdose after three decades of addiction
Angela Perella's struggles started early in her life. She began smoking marijuana at age 13 and moved on to using crack cocaine, which marked the struggles in her life for the next 33 years. Perella died July 9, 2015 of a fentanyl overdose. She left behind two children, ages 21 and 19. She is one of a growing number of people dying from using heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil in Northeast Ohio.
Years of drug troubles led up to Parma woman's opiate use
Clause, 32, died Nov. 15, 2015 after her family took her off life support. Her official cause of death was a lack of oxygen and blood flow to her brain, caused by a heroin overdose. She left behind two daughters and a son.
Lorain man used music to address addiction
Harwood, 26, died June 24 after a three-year addiction to heroin. The Elyria resident is among hundreds who have died of heroin or fentanyl overdoses this year in Northeast Ohio.
A month in the life of a Lyndhurst addict fighting to live
Bryan Smith's mother forced him into rehab at the age of 15 when she discovered that he smoked marijuana. That was not the drug that would put him on the path to heroin addiction. That drug was a muscle relaxer prescribed to him that same year by his doctor to treat his back problems. Now 32, Smith has been a heroin addict for nearly half his life.