Timeline photos
13 year-old Melanie Elkins had meth and Fentanyl in her system when she was found dead on June 12.
I had speculated this would be the case when I talked about Melanie's death a few weeks ago.
She would spend time at a safe-house that I'm not going to name just because they are really great and don't need any condemnation by people who don't understand the world we live in on the east side of Akron.
Several of my homeless friends knew Melanie. One woman said she spent time at this safe house when she was Melanie's age. She knew Melanie.
The general feeling was that Melanie appeared a lot older than 13. I don't feel like there was any intention, at least on the parts of people I know, that they were trying to harm a young girl. That's not what these people are about.
Keith Earley, a Black man, has been arrested in this situation. I don't think I know Keith. A grand jury determined last week that the 30-year-old Earley should be charged with gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony, and failure to report knowledge of a death, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
If I had to guess, Keith probably wasn't some evil monster either. I highly suspect Melanie overdosed, all the people around Melanie freaked out when they found out that she was only 13 and then they just left her in a field. You might think that's cruel, but that's pretty much the common approach a lot of times when someone dies of an overdose. You aren't viewed as a hero for doing the right thing in that case. You will likely be going to jail for possession and possibly for murder, if you were the person who had the drugs.
I will be interested to see if the haters of drug addiction will pile on 13 year old Melanie in the comments of this post... like they do every single other time I discuss an overdose death.
"It's their fault."
"That's what happens when you're a drug addict."
"It's just one less loser in our city."
And it's often said by people who were once homeless drug addicts themselves. You would think lived experience would make you more empathetic and wise to the reality of the world. But sometimes it just makes you cold and hard and callous.
The truth is, the withdrawal of these drugs... especially when you have no place to live and you feel like society already hates your guts... is virtually impossible to overcome. So you just keep doing more and more drugs... even if they aren't working great for you.
Melanie found a family on the streets. It's the same family that has adopted me. They are warm and beautiful and kind and sweet. And they also are adults who have built up a good tolerance for fentanyl. It's quite possible this was one of the first times Melanie tried Fentanyl. It's also possible that her meth was laced with Fentanyl and she didn't know that was what she was taking. But it's also just as possible that she did a speedball. Taking meth and Fentanyl is definitely a thing people do. Every single Fentanyl user I know has overdosed at least once. And most have overdosed multiple times. It's just so easy to do.
They probably didn't have any Narcan. It's possible that no one had a phone or money or transportation. Melanie probably slipped away right in front of their eyes and there was nothing they could do.
Of course the answer is to have safe use places where there are clean supplies, Narcan, a phone and supportive friends around you. But that won't happen in America because we are judgemental puritanical "Christians" that would rather watch a 13 year old girl die than to practice the extreme radical love and compassion their God told them to practice.
Somehow we have taken Christianity and turned it into an old, crusty, judgemental stick that hates anyone that doesn't look and behave exactly like we look and behave.
So, we won't learn anything from Melanie's death just like we haven't learned anything from all the other overdose deaths we have watched happen in the Akron area over the years.
I believe we are meant to face suffering on this planet so that we learn to be better. But we are all stuck in a rut right now. It's a rut of hate for "the other" that has turned us all into unmovable rocks of bitterness and cruelty.
I'm so sorry Melanie. I'm mostly sorry that your death will be meaningless and pointless. You will have died for nothing because we won't do one single thing to help the next 13 year girl who will die of an overdose. You died for nothing. I'm most of all sorry for that.