Overdose Deaths

Salfrando Butler died a few weeks ago on a sidewalk in Kent, poisoned by fentanyl. He was just shy of his 41st birthday. A quick search on Facebook shows a few pages under his name, each with a different theme: cooking, cars. Like he’d tried more than once to get his life back on track. Court records show at least 34 encounters with the law in our state. Did the law ever put up real barriers between Salfrando and the dealers and drugs that eventually killed him? Did the law hold him accountable in a way that provided meaningful intervention?

His friends thought he’d gotten clean in jail. He was out for a week when they found him dead from fentanyl poisoning in their carport. He’d had at least ten interactions with the justice system in Washington State. He had social services paperwork in his backpack. But never an intervention that helped him overcome his addiction and reclaim his life.

Nick Allen, 58, died of fentanyl poisoning three months after moving into his taxpayer-subsidized apartment. Staff found him in his room three days later.

Maria DeSersa was 34 years old when she was found dead of a fentanyl overdose in an apartment laundry facility in Federal Way, Washington. She had been a defendant in 24 cases over the span of seven years.