The fentanyl crisis is taking more lives in North Texas. Here are some of their stories.
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Tracking the Fentanyl Trade
As fentanyl devastates communities across the United States, Americans are fighting the epidemic on multiple fronts. This is the war against America’s deadliest drug.
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So far this year, for the first time, fentanyl-related deaths account for half of all accidental drug deaths in Tarrant, Parker, Denton and Johnson counties.
The fentanyl crisis hit young people hard when it surged in 2020; 1 in 4 deaths were people 21 or younger. Since then, younger people are a smaller proportion of fatalities. From 2020 through this summer, 672 people have died from fentanyl in the Fort Worth area, and the median age since 2021 has been 30 or older. The drug has caused or contributed to deaths of at least 100 teens and young adults since 2019, which is about 15% of all fentanyl-related fatalities.
Numbers are helpful to understand the scope of the fentanyl crisis, but each number represents a life. Here are just a few of those lives.
Abigil Alvarez
Abigil Alvarez, 18, died on May 14, 2022, in Hurst. She wanted to become an esthetician and was a creative soul who enjoyed expressing herself through fashion, makeup and skincare. Abigil was a giving person who loved to dance and sing, her family said. She was a daddy’s girl and close with her father. She put others before herself, and the love she had was unconditional.
“She was our baby girl,” her father, Adolph Alvarez, said.
Kyle Sexton
Kyle Sexton, 16, died in July 2020 in Fort Worth. He and his mother, Stephanie Hellstern, were close and talked about everything. He had recently had a growth spurt and was happy he was finally taller than his mother.
Angelina Rogers
Angelina Rogers, 21, died in October 2020 in Lewisville. She was from Carrollton. She had just graduated from cosmetology school, had a makeup business and “had a heart of gold,” her mother, Christina Peña, said. She was bubbly and giggly, loved to draw and had a passion for animals; at her work, she always fed the stray cats.
Jacob Reyes
Jacob Reyes, 21, died in February 2022 at the University of Oklahoma. He lived in Fort Worth. He performed in marching band, played the saxophone and jazz, and played football in high school. He made the Dean’s List for the two years he attended the University of Oklahoma. He was a gifted young man who wanted to make a difference in this world, his mom, Margaret Reyes, said.
“He was a loving son who came into our lives later and left us too soon,” she said.
Sarah Malesky
Sarah Malesky, 37, died in December 2020 in Lancaster. She loved her four children, animals and classic rock concerts. She was a junior zookeeper at the Dallas Zoo for a year and studied to be a vet tech at the Cedar Valley campus of Dallas College.
Marissa Ladatto
Marissa Ladatto, 21, died in December 2022 in Duncanville. She was compassionate; her church group went to Dallas to pass out food and coats to people who are homeless and Marissa would wash their feet. She sang anytime she got the chance, whether at karaoke, church or school performances, and she was voted “most likely to become famous” at Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Dallas. She volunteered with animals, worked with abused children in Ukraine and supported and participated in local Black Lives Matter marches.
Valerie Vineyard
Valerie Vineyard, 19, died in May 2021 in Saginaw. She was passionate about quality time with her friends and relatives, and loved shopping, cooking and laughing with her family. Her favorite people were her boyfriend, Harrison, and her nephew, James.
This story was originally published August 29, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
