Two families share their grief of losing loved ones to drug overdoses in DeKalb County during the pandemic

Elizabeth Leon wept as she and her grandmother, Joann Weakland, sat at their kitchen table in Cortland reflecting on Dawn Poston, who died recently of a drug overdose.

Dawn Poston was Leon’s sister and Weakland’s first grandchild, and someone who was always looking out for her younger siblings despite having “a really rough life,” Weakland said. Dawn’s family is speaking out now in the hopes of sharing a snippet of their loved one’s life, plagued by addiction which ultimately caused her death.

Dawn was one of 23 people who died of drug overdoses between March 1, 2020, through May 7, 2021, according to DeKalb County Coroner’s Office documents. That’s compared to the 13 drug overdose deaths recorded in the county from Jan. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29, 2020.

“I want my Dawnie back,” Weakland said, her voice breaking. “And she’s never coming back.”

Abuse and addiction

Dawn, who died at age 41, had been the victim of abuse in her life, her sister said during an interview.

Dawn eventually developed a crack addiction, which she overcame. Her opioid addiction, however, was not as obvious to her family until it became a full-blown addiction, Leon said.

Death by drug overdose is not a new tragedy to befall their family, the women said. Leon’s brother, Matthew Diehl, also died of drug overdose just before Christmas in 2019 outside of DeKalb County.

Leon and Weakland recounted some of Dawn’s final moments in their Cortland home in July 2020. She was later found dead at another lot in the mobile home park where they live at 6:50 p.m. on July 31, 2020, according to DeKalb County coroner records.

Weakland said Dawn “was acting strange” before her death.

“She was sitting right next to me right here,” Weakland said, gesturing to a seat at the kitchen table, “And she kept falling asleep in the chair. She says, ‘I didn’t get any sleep all night,’ but I have never seen her act like this before. ... And I tried to get her to move or sit on the sofa, since that’d be safer. I was afraid she was going to fall. I was poking at her, making her wake up.”

Leon said she believes the circumstances of her sister’s death are suspicious. Dawn apparently was left alone before she died of an overdose from heroin and fentanyl.

More than anything, Weakland said, the family wants answers about who gave her granddaughter the drugs and closure as the first anniversary of Dawn’s death this July draws closer.

By the numbers

Although the number of drug overdose related deaths nearly doubled from before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of drug overdose related emergency calls made to local law enforcement during that same period is similar to the number of such calls before 2020, according to data the departments provided the Daily Chronicle in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

DeKalb police recorded 27 overdose related calls from Jan. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29, 2020, according to department data. There were 29 such calls from March 1, 2020, through May 7, 2021.

Sycamore police, meanwhile, recorded six overdose related calls from Jan. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29, 2020, according to department data. There were five of those calls from March 1, 2020, through May 7, 2021.

The Genoa Police Department recorded seven overdose related calls from Jan. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29, 2020, according to department data. There were eight of those calls from March 1, 2020, through May 7, 2021.

And, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office recorded 12 overdose related calls from Jan. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29, 2020, according to department data. There were 13 of those calls from March 1, 2020, through May 7, 2021.

DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller said he’s unsure whether the pandemic has anything to do with rise in overdose related deaths. However, he said the number has steadily been climbing year over year.

“I hate to say it, but sometimes there’s a bad batch of drugs that come into the county,” the coroner said. " ... Some are laced with other chemicals and the person who is taking or doing them isn’t aware of it.”

Miller also said he sympathizes with the struggles of drug addiction. He said one of the hardest parts of his job is notifying next of kin for those who died of drug overdose.

“But we have to find out what happened,” Miller said. “Some of them fall out of rehab. ... For whatever reason, they do. It’s got to be horrible to go through. But some people expect it and some take it as a total surprise. They thought they kicked the habit, but they lapsed and went back to their ways. It’s very difficult.”

Other struggles of addiction amid pandemic

James Murphy was another overdose fatality in DeKalb County during the pandemic. He died at age 52 around Christmas last year.

His former wife, Tracy Miller of Peoria, said she and James were together for about five years before they got married. She said they both suffered from addiction.

Eleven days after they were married, Tracy Miller said, Murphy was arrested in January 2014 in Peoria County on drug charges. The jail stint was supposed to be 77 days, but Murphy was found with narcotics on him and charged on June 3, 2016, with bringing contraband into a penal institution, according to Peoria County court records.

He was sentenced to nine years in jail, and released in four, records show.

Miller, who said she is now sober, said that after Murphy was released, she later asked him for a divorce. She said she cared for him but their relationship “was toxic.”

“I relapsed with him and it was just a vicious cycle,” Tracy Miller said, reflecting on Murphy’s time after he was released from jail. “I couldn’t do that anymore.”

Tracy Miller said she has survivor’s guilt, because she believes asking Murphy for a divorce combined with the stress and pressure of the pandemic, along with the anniversary of his sister’s death on Dec. 24, was what pushed him to relapse.

Murphy was found dead after an overdose Dec. 26, 2020, at his niece’s house in DeKalb, according to DeKalb County coroner reports.

“He had only been out of jail for about eight months,” Tracy Miller said.

Tracy Miller said she wants to see someone held accountable for Murphy’s overdose death.

Help is here, addict counselors say

Meghan Cook, a member of the DeKalb County Mental Health Board and access coordinator for recovery center system Rosecrance, said an ongoing challenge exacerbated by the pandemic is getting people into in-person treatment.

“I think that people were concerned about going into treatment in person [due to the COVID-19 pandemic],” Cook said. “And most outpatient services were virtual, which was intimidating for people.”

Cook said virtual services might be intimidating because some may not be familiar or trusting of the internet, and might not know what to do if a technical issue arises or they just may not feel engaged.

“I think that we, as a field, have adapted to some of those things,” Cook said. “ … But I think initially it was very difficult to connect with people who were faces on a computer.”

Conversely, Cook said the convenience of virtual group therapy sessions and other treatment resources also benefited people who might be struggling with substance abuse.

“A lot of people who maybe weren’t near a facility … were now able to (be admitted),” Cook said.

Marissa Kirch, manager of addiction treatment services and Discovery House at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, said she believes changes to daily life during the pandemic contributed to alcohol hitting people in their personal lives which “maybe didn’t get them involved in the legal system, but are interfering with their relationships, their jobs.”

She said she’s also seen an increase in people coming into treatment for alcohol abuse on their own.

Kirch gave the example of how that might look like with alcohol: Before the pandemic, someone might have come home from work around 5 p.m. and have a glass of wine. Work-from-home life has saved some on commute times and blurred the 5 o’clock happy hour times, too.

“And the next thing I know, I’m spending more and more of my free time drinking and it’s starting to interfere now with, my quality of work from working from home, maybe even my hygiene working from home,” Kirch said in her example.

Kirch said working from home also might better hide the fact that someone may be struggling, especially if they have their video chat cameras off.

“So I think the visibility of addiction has decreased in terms of people coming in via referrals from others,” Kirch said. “ ... There’s not so many people being referred in by their workplace.”

Cook said she can understand how someone who had been sober for years before the pandemic could relapse due to a variety of variables: inability to meet in large groups for a 12-step rehabilitation program, or stress, anxiety and fear the chaotic viral disease caused, making “the perfect storm,” for relapses.

She said keeping patients busy is important for recovery — for those who lost that social or occupational structure, the pandemic made it harder to keep up with that recovery.

“Routine is this hard thing to replace,” Cook said. “And boredom can often lead to relapse.”

Nevertheless, Cook said treatment providers have been able to share services despite the pandemic-related difficulties and got creative with public outreach. For those who might have been resistant to traditional treatment for addiction, she said, maybe virtual treatment is something they would want to try.

“It hopefully will remain as a way to remove barriers.”