Ryan’s Last Day
March 8, 2023
On the day Ryan died, his anxiety was worsening. His whole family was in California for Christmas while he was alone in Fairview, Texas. When he ran out of his prescribed Xanax, he got a number from a friend for more.
He went to a dealer named Ben Westin, who was involved in a Dallas drug ring, selling counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl.
Ryan picked up some Xanax and a single pill of fentanyl laced oxycodone.
Soon after Ryan’s childhood friend, Michael Hart got on a gaming call, the others in the call told him that Ryan had relapsed and snorted an oxycodone.
“I could hear him struggling to breathe in the background,” Michael said.
As Ryan choked on his own breath, Michael screamed over the microphone. Michael lived in California while Ryan was in Texas, so he began frantically calling anyone he could to get to Ryan’s apartment.
He finally reached Ryan’s girlfriend. When she got to Ryan’s house after midnight, he wouldn’t wake up. Paramedics and police arrived at 12:42 a.m.
Tina was in California at the time staying with her brother when she got a call from Ryan’s girlfriend telling her that something happened to Ryan and that he was in the hospital. Tina called, waiting on hold for what felt like an eternity.
“The doctor got on the line and he’s going through everything that they did, and I was actually thinking that he would say he’s in serious condition,” Tina said. “He was telling me all of the steps that were taken and everything that was done to him. It just seemed like it went on forever. But then he said ‘I couldn’t get him back.’”
Tina stood outside of her brother’s house by her car as she wept, feeling broken and devastated.
“I was in shock,” Tina said. “Then I had to tell his sisters and my parents and the rest of his family and friends what had happened. I think no one ever expected that.”
Ryan overdosed on fentanyl and died on Dec. 28, 2018.