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JAMIE THOMPSONA toxic batch of drugs kills a group of young people in a few days; Sarasota parents and officials grasp for answers.
SARASOTA - If he had lived a different life, maybe she would have been more surprised.
But Dawn Okon knew how it would end long before the telephone rang on a Thursday evening: "Josh is dead, Mama. Josh is dead."
Her body shook. She couldn't help but cry. But as she sat alone in her Sarasota condominium, part of Okon felt relieved.
For a long time, she had been expecting that call. What Okon didn't anticipate was that her son's death would become part of an alarming pattern.
When paramedics found 23-year-old Josh Babbs in his apartment, they also found his 17-year-old girlfriend, Stephany McClure. Both died from an apparent drug overdose.
Authorities quickly linked their deaths to three men who overdosed five days earlier; two in a Sarasota house, another at a Comfort Inn.
They all knew each other. And another six acquaintances had gotten violently ill after taking pills.
The common link is methadone, which showed up on preliminary drug screenings of the five dead, ages 17 to 23, police said. Also found were traces of cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines, found in Valium or Xanax.
Someone, it seemed, had concocted a toxic batch of drugs. Rumors swirled among the community of young friends: It was revenge by a drug dealer; the drugs had been laced with rat poisoning; the five died because someone did not pay a drug debt.
Detectives have offered few details. They're searching for the makers of the deadly cocktail, who could face drug or murder charges.
Hundreds in Sarasota have attended memorial services the past two weeks. Worried parents are calling the local drug coalition, asking for help.
"There is a lot of desperation in this community," said Lisa Phillips, executive director of the Sarasota Coalition on Substance Abuse and a recovering addict. "People are coming forward to acknowledge it. Parents are calling, saying, "What can we do?' "
The parents of the dead also are mobilizing.
Her son may have failed at life, Okon thought, but in death he was going to accomplish something.
* * *By the time her blond, blue-eyed boy grew into his 6-foot frame, Josh had dropped out of school and started using drugs.
"He wanted to do things right," Okon said, "but he didn't know how to go about doing it."
When his mother came home from a camping trip two years ago, she realized her firstborn had stolen her ex-husband's GPS system and DVD player to support his heroin addiction. Tired of second chances, she pressed charges. Josh spent three months in jail.
Josh had always been impulsive. If he wanted to go off the high dive, Okon said, he didn't look down at the water. He just jumped.
"Other people just saw the addict," she said. "But everyone in our family loved him so much. You could look at him and see such a good soul."
In the past year, Okon and her son had begun talking again. She could tell he was using, his eyes often bloodshot. She and her mother predicted he would die of an overdose.
"When we talked about it, he would get very defensive," said Okon, a 44-year-old mother of three who works at Honeywell. "He'd say, "I'm tired of everybody being in my business.' All we could say is, "We love you.' "
When Josh got his last name tattooed on his back, Okon joked that it would make it easier for authorities to identify his body.
"I don't mean to sound cruel," she said, "... but that was a definite possibility."
* * *Police discovered the first two bodies Aug. 14.
Josh Maxwell, a 22-year-old construction worker, and Eric Chapman, 20, were found dead in Chapman's home on Christie Avenue in Sarasota. Later that day, in a Comfort Inn, police found 23-year-old Michael Carlisle, who worked at a pest control company and was engaged to be married.
Police initially classified the deaths as probable drug overdoses. But five days later, on Aug. 19, sheriff's deputies discovered Josh Babbs and Stephany McClure. Authorities learned the five knew each other.
A preliminary toxicology screening showed they all had methadone in their bodies.
"We have rushed to get the word out to drug users and their friends," said police spokesman Jay Frank. "We hope we don't come across any more dead bodies."
At least a half-dozen other people took what is believed to be the same drug and got sick with vomiting and diarrhea, said Phillips of the drug coalition. They apparently bought the drug from Josh Babbs, his mother said. They cut the pill into parts, boiled it in water and drank it, Phillips said.
It is unclear where Josh got the drugs.
Methadone can be bought on the street from $20 to $50 a pill, according to Phillips. It's used to wean addicts off heroin and as a painkiller.
The addictive narcotic is the third most lethal drug in Florida overdose cases, following heroin and fentanyl, according to a 2003 report by the Florida Medical Examiner's Commission.
It's easy enough to get on the street, said one of Stephany's best friends, 18-year-old Amanda Turner. It was one of many drugs Turner's group of friends tried while skipping class at Riverview High School.
"A lot of people were doing drugs, and I was constantly getting into trouble," she said. "It's the people you choose to hang out with. They go downhill and drag you right down there with them."
Turner's family moved from Sarasota to Brandon, partly because they were worried about their daughter and her group of friends.
* * *The night she died, Stephany called her mom, crying. Three boys had died of drug overdoses.
"She was so upset about it," said her mom, Stephany Murphy. The 17-year-old asked whether she could spend the night at her new boyfriend's apartment.
"I wasn't crazy about the idea," Murphy said. "But she was upset, and I didn't want her driving."
She had been having problems with Stephany. The sweet, friendly girl began to change in middle school, becoming more defiant. When Murphy dropped her daughter off at high school, she quickly sneaked off campus with friends.
"I was trying to get her on the right track," Murphy said.
Stephany dropped out of school.
Her mother petitioned the court to keep her daughter in school, and doctors put her on antidepressants, which made her suicidal, Murphy said. Stephany was placed in a youth shelter, then ran away. The process seemed more traumatic than worthwhile, so Murphy agreed to let her daughter stop attending school and work for a GED instead.
"Lately, she was just hanging out," Murphy said. "I worried constantly."
Stephany's brother always checked out her new boyfriends. But he hadn't had a chance to look into Josh Babbs. By the time he started asking around and learned Babbs was 23 years old and had been addicted to heroin, it was too late.
Stephany didn't call her mom the next day. Josh didn't show up for work.
After their cell phones rang repeatedly, Josh's roommate went into the room to check on them. He called 911.
* * *Okon sat in her bright yellow living room last week, surrounded by colorful bouquets and sympathy cards. Behind her were a series of snapshots that documented her son's life - an adolescent holding a Bible, then a young man smoking a cigarette.
Tearfully, Okon said she will miss her son, but she also feels peace. "I don't have to worry about where he's sleeping, or whether he ate dinner, or whether he's dead," she said. "His brain isn't in turmoil anymore."
She has asked for a copy of her son's autopsy photographs and plans to show them to his friends. "If I can save one child, one parent, one life," she said, "maybe that will make it all worthwhile."
Stephany's mom, in her home miles away, was also surrounded by photographs and flowers, sent by some of the 200 people who attended her daughter's memorial service. She hasn't spoken to Okon, and can't help thinking Josh was at least partly responsible for Stephany's death.
"She was only 17," Murphy said. "She was so trusting."
Murphy's family held a private viewing before Stephany was cremated. Murphy stood over her only daughter.
"Honey, it's okay," she said. "I know you didn't mean to do it."
She touched her daughter's body one last time. Her arms, her legs, her hair.
"Mommy loves you," she said softly.
After receiving dozens of calls, the Sarasota drug coalition plans a community meeting Thursday to discuss drug use among young adults.
"Something has to be done," Okon said.