By Sara Kassabian | The Tribune (San Luis Obispo)
Editor’s word: This story is a part of an ongoing sequence of tales analyzing how opioids — particularly fentanyl — are killing San Luis Obispo County residents.
On most days, Candice Varner’s cellphone would mild up with notifications from her daughter, Reidly.
The 17-year-old from Atascadero would textual content and Facetime a couple of instances a day to ask questions, share a narrative or request that her mother decide up one thing on her approach house.
However on Feb. 16, 2021, Varner’s cellphone was darkish and silent.
“We all the time name one another or she often calls me at work,” mentioned Varner, who works as a hairdresser at a Morro Bay salon. “She wasn’t responding. I even despatched her a textual content that I used to be scared.”
By the point she obtained house from work round 6 p.m., she hadn’t heard from Reidly all day. She tried the deal with to her daughter’s bed room door.
It was locked.
So Varner grabbed the spare key from the lavatory and opened the door.
Inside, she discovered Reidly mendacity peacefully on her again, with one arm on her abdomen and her head barely off the pillow.
“I sat down on the sting of the mattress and touched her abdomen, and she or he was ice chilly,” Varner mentioned. “After which I screamed. I pulled her head towards me. There was foam and blood popping out of her mouth.”
The post-mortem report confirmed that Reidly, her solely little one, died from fentanyl poisoning.
“A vibrant life was gone immediately due to a capsule,” Varner mentioned.
Was Reidly’s loss of life unintended or intentional?
From what Varner has gathered, her daughter bought the fentanyl capsule by means of Snapchat from a supplier in Santa Maria.
Whether or not Reidly knew that the drug she was taking contained fentanyl — an artificial opioid that's lethal even in small portions — stays unclear.
Fenta-pills are sometimes pressed to appear to be widespread prescribed drugs however really include the highly effective painkiller, like what Reidly took, or a combination of fentanyl and one other drug.
“She locked herself in a room and did it alone. It may have been an accident, however I don’t know,” mentioned Reign, 17, a childhood good friend of Reidly who requested to be recognized solely by her center identify.
Reidly’s mom discovered a number of being pregnant exams in her daughter’s room on the time of her loss of life. Some have been constructive and one was adverse, in line with the post-mortem report.
The being pregnant exams have been outdated, Varner mentioned.
In October 2020, Reidly turned pregnant. The household mentioned it and determined they needed to boost the newborn. However on the six- week ultrasound, it was clear the being pregnant was not viable.
“I do assume that had rather a lot to do together with her psychological state,” Varner mentioned. “It was only a few months later that she was gone.”
Reidly was not pregnant on the time of her loss of life. Varner mentioned she didn't know Reidly saved the exams.
The being pregnant exams, Reidly’s historical past of drug use and previous statements expressing suicidal ideas made it troublesome for the coroner to find out whether or not her loss of life ought to be thought-about an unintended overdose or intentional.
In the long run, the coroner dominated the loss of life “undetermined,” in line with the post-mortem report.
No matter whether or not she knew the drug contained fentanyl, she was prepared to take the danger.
“In her headspace, I feel she didn't give a f— at the moment,” her mom mentioned. “I don’t know if she was depressed, or if it was anxiousness and panic, however she took the improper stuff.”
The Tribune requested the Atascadero Police Division for an replace on the investigation into Reidly’s loss of life, however requests for an interview went unanswered and requests for a replica of the police report have been denied.
Varner mentioned she has not heard from the Police Division or anybody else in regulation enforcement since she obtained a replica of the post-mortem report 5 months after her daughter’s loss of life.
Teen struggled with psychological sickness and substance use at a younger age
The trail that led Reidly to take the fentanyl capsule was at instances winding and troublesome.
She grew up in Atascadero and attended Santa Rosa Elementary Faculty for kindergarten into fourth grade, earlier than transferring to the Atascadero Tremendous Arts Academy for the remainder of fourth by means of eighth grade. As a young person, she bounced between Morro Bay Excessive Faculty, Atascadero Excessive Faculty and later Paloma, the native continuation college — looking for her place.
Reidly’s struggles with extreme anxiousness began when she was a preteen, Varner mentioned. Behind her chatty character was a 12-year-old with persistent abdomen aches and panic assaults.
Varner took her to see docs and therapists, with the caveat that they keep away from prescribing any habit-forming substances, like Xanax and different benzodiazepines.
When she was across the age of 13, nonetheless, an older boyfriend launched her to Xanax, and she or he began taking the sedative recreationally to assist quell her anxiousness, Varner mentioned.
Via her adolescence, she confronted pressures typical for a young person — friendships, older boyfriends and social media — and people not-as-typical — unplanned pregnancies, intimate accomplice violence, substance use and psychological sickness.
“She was going by means of rather a lot,” Reign mentioned.
One other good friend, Dani Bloomer, mentioned she noticed Reidly’s experimentation with medication develop over time.
“I feel the older we obtained, the more severe it obtained,” Bloomer, 18, mentioned about Reidly’s substance use.
When it got here time to go to highschool, Reidly determined to go to Morro Bay as an alternative of staying in Atascadero. Varner mentioned she needed a contemporary begin.
As potential stressors, her pals pointed to a strained relationship between Reidly and her father, in addition to a sequence of risky relationships with older boyfriends who additionally struggled with substance use.
Reign’s mom, Laura, who's a household good friend of the Varners and requested to be recognized by her center identify, mentioned her daughter and Reidly “have been like twins rising up.”
“They have been collectively on a regular basis,” she mentioned.
Laura mentioned she made the troublesome determination to separate Reign from Reidly as a result of Reidly began stepping into fights and utilizing medication whereas attending Morro Bay Excessive Faculty her freshman and sophomore years.
“I sat with Reign and I talked to her about how Reidly can’t come over anymore as a result of it’s not the precise path that we have to be on,” Laura mentioned. “That was laborious as a result of I actually cared about (Reidly) a lot.”
Midway by means of her sophomore 12 months, Reidly transferred from Morro Bay to Atascadero Excessive Faculty, the place she met Violet Williams, 17.
Williams mentioned she remembers Reidly bodily preventing with one in every of her older boyfriends, who she mentioned was additionally hooked on substances and had a historical past of violence.
“He’s not a very good particular person, and he actually shouldn’t have been in her life,” Williams mentioned. “He launched her to loads of stuff, and he pissed me off actual badly.”
The buddies who knew Reidly from childhood by means of her teenage years have been anxious about her well being and security.
“I knew all the things about her, and I knew what she was doing,” mentioned Bloomer, whereas holding again tears. “I knew issues have been getting worse.”
Within the months earlier than her loss of life, hanging out with Reidly was much less about having enjoyable and extra about retaining her bodily protected, Bloomer mentioned.
Atascadero teen described as assured, spontaneous and free-spirited
Reidly confronted challenges with medication and her psychological well being, however pals mentioned she might be type and nurturing.
Bloomer was a brand new scholar beginning courses at Atascadero Tremendous Arts Academy when she met Reidly. The ladies have been seated subsequent to one another of their first classroom collectively.
Bloomer mentioned she had gone to 6 colleges earlier than beginning at Tremendous Arts and was painfully shy.
“The primary few weeks, I stored going house to my mother and I used to be like, ‘This woman is so annoying, and she or he is not going to cease speaking, and she or he received’t cease asking questions, and she or he’s very loud,’” Bloomer mentioned.
Ultimately, Reidly’s gregarious nature helped Dani develop into extra outspoken within the classroom, a lot to the delight of lecturers and faculty directors, Bloomer mentioned.
Earlier than lengthy, the buddies have been inseparable each inside and outdoors the partitions of the Tremendous Arts Academy.
“We have been unbelievable polar opposites. And he or she was the definition of a free spirit. Something goes,” Bloomer mentioned.
Williams remembers Reidly as somebody who hated being bored to the purpose it made her bodily uncomfortable. She was an individual who embraced her many impulses and lived life boldly.
“She was impulsive but additionally tremendous caring and candy,” Williams mentioned. “She appreciated the little issues, like going to eat someplace, doing all of your nails, doing all of your make-up.”
Reidly appreciated to alter her hair coloration, loved driving up the coast and liked water — whether or not soaking within the bathtub or sizzling tub or sitting within the creek on a sizzling day, her family and friends mentioned.
“I bear in mind in the future. … She mentioned, ‘I’m actually bored … I need to go bounce in a physique of water … however I need to do it totally clothed,’” Williams mentioned.
It was practically sunset, and the buddies drove out to Triple Ponds, a swimming gap between Atascadero and Santa Margarita, plunged into the water after which went to Vons grocery retailer of their moist garments.
Williams met Reidly proper earlier than the pandemic shutdown in February 2020. The 2 lived close to one another and spent nearly all of the quarantine collectively, switching off between homes.
Someday throughout their friendship, Reidly went to a rehabilitation heart in Lengthy Seashore, and it appeared like she was staying away from the individuals and substances that may get her into hassle, Williams mentioned.
Williams remembers Reidly as being assured about what she needed and the way she needed it. The buddies have been inseparable till the autumn of 2020, when all the things appeared to alter in a single day.
“Reidly simply determined that she hated me,” Williams mentioned. “It was actually complicated. It didn’t really feel good. So I needed to discover different individuals to be pals with.”
Varner confirmed that Reidly might be imply if she was indignant.
Williams mentioned Reidly warned her initially of their friendship that she would often keep pals with somebody for about three months. Regardless of the falling out, Williams nonetheless valued their friendship, and they'd textual content sometimes.
“She’d push individuals away to begin a brand new group of pals,” Varner mentioned. “She was fairly good at that.”
Within the fall of 2020, not lengthy after Reidly minimize Williams out of her life, she turned pregnant and advised her mother and different shut pals that she needed to maintain the newborn.
“I feel at first she appeared like she genuinely needed to cease utilizing substances,” Bloomer mentioned.
Reidly would name her and ask if she would transfer into an house together with her to assist maintain the newborn.
However the fantasy was short-lived.
“I feel that she believed she wasn’t robust sufficient to cease, and so she made the choice (to have an abortion),” Bloomer.
Varner mentioned an ultrasound revealed the being pregnant wasn’t viable and issues meant she needed to terminate the being pregnant — it was a troublesome time for Reidly.
“This can be a lot of stuff for youths our age,” Bloomer mentioned. “We have been 16, and we didn’t know tips on how to deal with any of it.”
If you're in disaster, please name the Central Coast Hotline at 800-783-0607. You might also name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or textual content HELLO to 741-741.
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