What happened was my son moved in four years ago and I discovered he was on heroin. He had lived around the corner and what I found out from him afterwards was his girlfriend was out of heroin and got in a fit and started smashing stuff up. So he would come over here and sleep when they would fight. She would call 911 because she was so angry and upset. So they came to her house and saw the bashed in door and did a search and discovered he was growing pot. He settled that in court. So that’s how it all started that he moved in here. That’s when I discovered he was on heroin a few weeks or so later.

The first thing I said to him of course was that he had to quit. He explained to me how you can’t quit and how he’d tried to quit before.

He had been in a motorcycle accident two years before. He had a smashed shoulder blade and broken collarbone. He had a lot of pain from that and got addicted to the OxyContin and that led to heroin and all that. I don’t think he was using before that. So I got him an appointment with the surgeon for the pain to see what could be done. It took from July to October before they could schedule the operation. I begged them to hurry up and do that.

He went down to New York or New Jersey or something to buy some heroin and got caught and went to jail. That would have been 2001. That’s still up in the air. He got bailed out of jail because his collarbone broke again, the metal from the surgery was sticking out from his skin after laying out flat on the hard bunk, it wasn’t good for his body. When they redid the surgery they put in heavier steel.

Meanwhile, all this time, we were trying to find help for his heroin. My husband met Alice and Mark at a support group for friends and family. I don’t know if we found out about the methadone clinic in Greenfield or not, but at another town meeting one mother said she was going to start taking her kids. Shawn had said that he needed methadone to get off the heroin. So we started carpooling. She had two children on heroin. At that time they were 21 and 23, and Shawn was 26. They lived about half an hour away. And we would also pick up a couple along the interstate on the way.

I am not really too sure except there was heroin around. There hadn’t been because he had been having clean urine tests. I am not really sure what happened that night. They were basically working, he had his glass blowing equipment in the other house. Her father was there, they were doing pills and drinking and all the guys there were blowing glass.

She had driven for me the day before so I wouldn’t have to go to the clinic. I never thought about it. She wasn’t a morning person, she never was because she would party all night. And then her father came over and I thought, “Oh yeah.” And I found her in the bedroom.

They were never sure what time she died. They had a 12 hour span, they figured she died about the time he left for carpool. They had had a heavy quilt on with the air conditioner blasting. She had vomited. There were red flecks in it. They had eaten pizza the night before. It was tomato skins. I thought maybe she had vomited and aspirated but she hadn’t.

He was arrested because he had violated probation by using drugs. I don’t even know if they had a trial for that. But that was wiped away due to the federal sentencing. That was 25 years.

When they discovered Jill had died from the heroin, everyone came out of the woodwork saying they had bought heroin from Shawn. And supposedly I had given him a room to sell pot from. That’s what I am being charged with- supplying the room. We haven’t even gone to court. Who knows at this point. It gets very complicated in there. She overdosed July 31 st, 2001.

He was charged with distribution of heroin. He got 20 years for selling and five years for lying, perjury. Whether the death was involved, I am not sure, you get kind of brain dead at that point. The police report had him admitting that he did drugs with her. Since she died from a heroin overdose they interviewed everyone they could.

I am not sure. People that I saw come through the door. I think they had their own little group as far as I knew. There weren’t strangers coming to the door. I knew he needed heroin. They boys said he asked me for money for heroin- but he never did. I never remembered him saying it was for heroin.

I remember my husband was in a short sleeved shirt when the gal from the television station came up and handed him the paper saying our house was seized and interviewed him. That’s the first we heard of it. We were in shock. The DA released it to the news. She handed him the papers that said the house had been seized by the federal government. I don’t even know if I remember all that happened. We got our lawyer. He said the federal government could indeed seize the house. They came in and tacked up papers all over the house saying it had been seized.

Her estate is also suing us for wrongful death in civil court. Nationwide offered them $70,000 to settle, but now they say if I am guilty they don’t have to pay. I have to sell this house now. We have to sell for them not to seize it if they win. I think they want $115,000. Down from $600,000. We have to sell to appease her estate and the feds.

Because of the testimony from all of the heroin addicts trying to reduce their own sentences our house has been seized. Because she died from an overdose in our house.