(MCT) — The light was on in Megan Miller's bedroom late that January night inside her family's Naperville home.
Paul Miller walked in and was startled to find his 18-year-old daughter curled into a ball, face down in front of her dresser. He feared the worst when he felt the rigidity of her shoulders and saw the discoloration in her face. There was foam around her mouth, but no breath escaping.
"Megan, wake up!" his wife, Amy, said, after she rushed in. "What did you do?"
Megan was dead. Amy Miller said she found three lines of heroin atop the dresser. Megan's death certificate said she died from heroin and ecstasy, according to her parents.
Naperville had gone through the agony of six other heroin deaths in the year before Megan's. The victims ranged from 17 to 30. Two days after the Millers buried their daughter in February, a forum planned before her death was held at a local library on the dangers of heroin. The turnout in the worried town was so unexpectedly large — more than 500 people — that the room couldn't accommodate everyone, and organizers were forced to give back-to-back presentations.
Paul and Amy Miller were there, their perspective far different from others on hand. They did not speak to the crowd that night. But when another forum is held Monday — a session organized because of the interest generated by the first event — the Millers will be among those answering questions from concerned parents, and they'll share painful details of their daughter's life and death.
The last years of Megan's life were not pleasant ones for her parents, who fought with their daughter to try to help her to recover from drug addiction and other problems. But insights they will share Monday, they believe, will help others.
"We can't fight with her because she's not here," Amy said at her home recently. "But we can fight to make some kind of meaning out of her death."
Heroin has become more prevalent in Naperville in recent years, authorities say. In 2011, there were 47 heroin arrests in Naperville, double the number in 2009, according to police. During that time, heroin made up 9 percent of narcotics arrests, second to cannabis at 74 percent. Among Naperville teens, there was a 78 percent increase in felony drug arrests in 2011 over the previous year and a 450 percent increase in heroin arrests during that time.
The DuPage Metropolitan Enforcement Group reported 59 seizures and undercover purchases throughout the county in 2011, up from 16 in 2008.
Police say much of the heroin, priced as low as $10 a hit, is coming from Chicago's West Side from what is known as the Heroin Highway — Interstates 290 and 88.
"Every suburban community along (that route) is at risk and has their own issues because of that," said Kathleen M. Burke, CEO of the Robert Crown Center for Health Education. "I believe police are finding that it used to be you go to the West Side of Chicago. Now there are stops in between that have developed for distribution."
Burke said heroin is taking its toll throughout the suburbs.
"The face of the heroin user is middle- to upper-class white suburban youth," she said.
At the Linden Oaks center at Naperville's Edward Hospital, admissions for opiate addictions tripled between 2006 and 2009, according to Beth Sack, coordinator of the addiction program. Sack has seen the problem ebb and flow over the years, but she said it seems now to have a firm foothold in the suburbs, especially among young adults.
Kimberly Groll, an alcohol and drug addictions counselor at Care Clinics of Naperville says, "We live in a fast-paced society … so when these kids encounter a problem or an issue, what these children are doing is running to the fastest possible way to cure it."
Amy and Paul Miller said their daughter was personable and creative with a talent for art and music when she was younger. But she also had a stubborn streak and struggled with depression and low self-esteem. In eighth grade, she began battling an eating disorder and cutting herself.
The Millers sent their daughter to rehab programs and followed up with therapists and a nutritionist. They hoped Neuqua Valley High School would provide a fresh start. But one night just before her sophomore year, Megan sneaked out of the house. It wasn't until October, after a call from police, that her parents learned she had been sexually abused that night.
Encouraged by her parents, Megan agreed to testify against her attacker, Trevor Zirkin, 19. The case dragged out for nearly two years before Megan could share her full story in front of a judge, and the Millers say she was harassed by other girls and Zirkin's friends in the meantime.
"It's an emotional roller coaster, especially every time you have to work up the courage to go back to court," Paul said.
Last spring, the Millers discovered how their daughter was coping with that stress. Amy found plastic containers around the house, and Megan eventually admitted she had been smoking marijuana as she walked to school every day to deal with the anxiety.
After another incident of marijuana use and a threat by Megan to cut herself again, the Millers called police on their daughter and got her into an inpatient rehab program.
In June, as her treatment was wrapping up, she finally got her chance to testify against Zirkin, who was convicted of two counts of criminal sexual abuse. He subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor battery as well.
Worried about her emotional state, the Millers tried to be vigilant parents. They kept tabs on their daughter's friends, searched her belongings for drugs and made sure someone was always home with her. To keep her from sneaking out, Amy slept on the couch and Paul would repeatedly change the house's alarm code.
But the last few years of Megan's life were tumultuous, and fights escalated to the point where one time Megan struck her mother in the mouth.
In November, Amy was shocked to find her daughter and a male friend in the basement with what she believed were drugs, catching a glimpse of white powder lines on the coffee table before they swept them away.
"How stupid I was that I let her see this kid and this is what they've been doing," she said.
Soon after, Megan admitted to a social worker she was frequently using heroin, but the Millers still don't know how frequently or for how long.
A week after her mother found her in the basement, Megan read a victim impact statement in court for Zirkin's sentencing. He got 45 days in jail and was ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years, complete two years of sex offender probation and obtain a psychosexual evaluation.
The Millers say Megan was disappointed by what she felt was a light sentence. They persuaded her to enter a rehab program, but she lasted only days before she tested positive for heroin.
For her 2012 New Year's resolution, Megan promised to get clean.
For a month, Megan stayed true to her word. Amy said her daughter was accepted to college and looked forward to studying law enforcement and criminal justice administration.
"She had so much experience on the wrong side of the law," Amy said. "We were hoping she could flip it and make something of it."
After a Jan. 27 Narcotics Anonymous meeting, Megan came home feeling encouraged and inspired, her mother said.
Late the following night, her father found her lifeless body. They will never know why their daughter used heroin again that night. And her death has left them questioning their every decision.
But knowing that others can learn from their painful experience, the Millers encourage families not to be embarrassed to ask for help if their child has a drug problem. They suggest parents be vigilant — drug-test their teens, check their text messages and Facebook pages and run friends' names through an Internet search engine to see if any arrests pop up.
"It's your right," Amy said. "Your fight for your kids' life. … Don't pick your battles. You've got to fight them all."
"Heroin: Stemming the Tide" begins at 7 p.m. Monday at Wheatland Salem Church, 1852 W. 95th St., Naperville. The program is a partnership of the church, the Naperville Public Library and the DuPage Child Abuse Prevention Coalition.
In partnership with area police, Naperville Unit School District 203 also will hold a forum at 7 p.m. April 3 at Naperville North High School, 899 N. Mill St. Indian Prairie Unit School District 204 will hold a forum at 7 p.m. April 5 at Neuqua Valley High School, 2360 95th St., Naperville.