Transcripts

CATHY WURZER: Well, over the past few days, we've been looking back on the life of Prince, who died a year ago this past Friday of a fentanyl overdose. But the pop superstar was just one of many people across Minnesota who died of similar causes in April of 2016 alone. Matt Sepic has our story.

MATT SEPIC: There were 35 in all, and they came from all over the state according to an MPR News analysis of state data. They ranged in age from 19 to 63 and included a nurse, a construction worker, a phone technician. There was an economist, a college student, a marine veteran who'd served in Iraq. They were sons and daughters, mothers, fathers, and grandparents. For all their differences, they shared one thing in common opioids were a direct cause of or contributing factor in their deaths. 33-year-old Ryan Bowen of Saint Cloud was an avid BMX bike racer and stunt performer.

SANDRA BOWEN: It came naturally to him. He enjoyed it, and he loved his bike.

MATT SEPIC: That's Sandra Bowen, Ryan's mother. Despite his immense talent, Sandra says her son turned down many sponsorship opportunities because he didn't want to endorse companies he didn't like. She also says Ryan deplored cruelty to animals and became a vegan in his late teens.

For years, Ryan suffered from anxiety and depression after his older brother was killed in a car crash in 2001. Six years later, his younger brother who survived the accident suffered a fatal seizure. Sandra says the pain was too much for her son, and he became addicted to alcohol. He quit drinking, then relapsed on marijuana and anti-anxiety meds.

And last April 19, after time in detox, he bought several fentanyl patches from a dealer he'd known for years. Sandra saw Ryan chewing on one of the patches that night, but she didn't realize just how dangerous that was until she found him dead on her couch the next morning.

SANDRA BOWEN: There must have been a point where he was out of control, and I should have called an ambulance or something. But I didn't know. I didn't know enough about the drug. And perhaps that's part of the problem for everybody.

MATT SEPIC: Sandra hopes that Prince's death the following day from the same drug will continue to draw attention to fentanyl's dangers. Amy Lauer of Saint Cloud pleaded guilty to third degree murder for selling Ryan the patches. She was sentenced this month to time served plus 25 years probation and was also ordered to pay restitution. She declined to comment for this story. Sam Young, her attorney, says his client remains distraught over Ryan's death and is working on her own recovery from substance abuse.

But Sandra Bowen says the legal process left many questions unanswered, namely how Ryan's dealer obtained prescriptions for such a powerful narcotic and why she got caught reselling it only after it was too late. On the same day Sandra lost her last surviving son, Teresa Cox of Minneapolis lost her younger brother, 48-year-old Josh Thompson.

TERESA COX: I didn't want him to be a number or a statistic. Of course, he is one, but I don't want him to be remembered like that.

MATT SEPIC: A member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, Josh was a fixture in the Native American community of South Minneapolis. Teresa says the happiest time in Josh's life was in the 1990s when he was a youth worker at the American Indian Center. And even though lifelong heart trouble and later chronic neck and back pain left him unable to work, Teresa says the man known both inside and outside their family as Uncle Josh still reached out to young people as much as he was able.

TERESA COX: All the kids always gravitated toward him. He was always the one that would get up and play catch with them. He would say, let's go play basketball, or he always had them doing stuff. And I think that's why a lot of the kids remember him in the community because he took the time to do that.

MATT SEPIC: Josh's addiction remained hidden from those close to him because he had legitimate prescriptions for pain medication. According to state death records, he died after taking oxycodone along with the street drugs methamphetamine and heroin. Josh's niece has also struggled with substance abuse, 21-year-old Lucy Norris.

LUCY NORRIS: I was getting really bad. I was up to doing almost 20 pills a day. And all I would do was just be by myself all the time. I wouldn't be with anybody. And it was a big wake-up call when he passed away because then that kind of opened my eyes, and I said, OK, well, I do need help.

MATT SEPIC: Today Lucy marks eight months of sobriety. Matt Sepic, Minnesota Public Radio News.