Parents Who Lost Son To Overdose Warn About Mail-Order Drugs
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - Kris Randall thumbed through a family photo album, remembering the good times before September of 2015 when her son overdosed on a dangerous cocktail of heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic opiate.
Dillon was 21 years old, a graduate of Summit High School. He loved to fish and be in the outdoors. Kris says her son sadly got caught up in drugs, but she says he was trying to get his life back on the right tracks when he overdosed.
"It still seems pretty surreal. To have him not here has changed our lives completely," Kris told CBS4's Matt Kroschel.
Dillon's father, a local firefighter came home from work on that horrible day to find his only son dead. That same morning another young man was found dead of a drug overdose on the other side of town.
Both had allegedly received drugs from another local teen, Christopher Malcolm. Investigators say he had purchased them online and received them through the mail, not knowing their strength or what was inside.
Now the Randall's are hoping their tragic story will keep other young people from dying.
They blame the ease of getting the drugs as a major factor in the current overdose epidemic.
"I didn't know anything about the 'dark net,' but now I know it's very easy for people to get anything they want off the web," Randall said.
The same year Dillon died, six other drug overdose deaths were reported in Summit County alone, but across the state hundreds of people have died.
Malcolm, the man who investigators say bought the drugs online, is set accept a plea deal next month. CBS4 has learned he will likely serve prison time under that deal, but the judge will make the final sentencing.
Matt Kroschel covers news throughout Colorado working from the CBS4 Mountain Newsroom. Send story ideas to mrkroschel@cbs.com and connect with him on Twitter @Matt_Kroschel.