An early-July heroin overdose death of a former Carrier Mills man made few headlines in the days following, other than those in the obituary pages.
However, for the family and friends Aaron Emery left behind, the situation remains a painful one.
And while police are relatively silent about the situation, which occurred in West Frankfort, friends and family know there’s much to be said about it, and are wanting people to speak up if they know anything. In fact, Emery’s mother Renee Emery has her own blog and has issued heartfelt pleas to those who were running with her son in the days leading up to his death, pleas for them to get their lives straightened out, stop glorifying dope, and get straight before something like what happened to her son happens to them or someone they love.
The heroin epidemic in southern Illinois is real and is impacting lives daily. That’s why we featured Emery’s death in a back page article in the current edition (July-August 2014), which we present to you as our mid-day Read the Lead, Franklin Co. drug death under investigation:
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FRANKLIN/SALINE COs.—Authorities are apparently ignoring calls for more information as it regards the death of a young man on July 4.
Aaron Matthew Emery, 20, most recently of Carrier Mills in Saline County, died of a heroin overdose at a location in West Frankfort on that night.
His death has caused a surge in calls for addressing the dire problem southern Illinois is facing with heroin, which is rapidly descending into the epidemic status seen over the past several years in the Metro-East-St. Louis area of the western side of the state.
Non-law enforcement sources have made public the circumstances surrounding the death of Emery in brief: He was at a friend’s house in West Frankfort partying, and ended up “banging” (shooting up) some heroin that was “more pure than he was used to having.”
As a result, he shortly began to overdose, and when his partying contingent observed this, instead of taking him to a hospital or getting him any kind of emergency assistance on-scene, they moved him to another residence in West Frankfort…
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