Drug this person used or died from: Crack Cocaine Marlene met a man named Brad on the Internet. He was in the midst of a divorce. Marlene told me he was going to come and stay with her for a few weeks. I tried to tell her it was not a good idea. But she was determined because they both had so much in common and got along so well. They met and hit it off and so he moved in with her. Our family felt she should be wary, but she was in lala-land! Marlene wanted Dad to meet Brad, but Dad was not interested -- he felt it was way too soon. Also, Dad did not get a good feeling about Brad. I also felt unsure of him, too, and warned Marlene not to rush into anything. Little by little, Marlene began opening up with me. She'd tell me that Brad was moody and controlling. He was on probation for a DUI. For a while we didn’t hear much from Marlene, which was unlike her. Usually she and I would talk many times throughout the day but her calls and emails became less frequent, and our family wondered what was going on. Then Brad called me and said that he was very worried about Marlene. He wanted me and the family to know that she was very sick, and doing lots of crack cocaine, as was he. He wanted me to drive him near the place he knew she would be -- the “crack house.” He got a ride back home from who knows who and gave the people Marlene’s brand new computer in exchange for his own crack. Boy o boy, was I ripping! But you see, when you hear that your family member is sick like that, you just need to help. Our family tried calling Marlene, but she just didn’t want to talk to us, so Dad and my sister drove to her apartment and surprised them. The house was a pigsty! They could tell they both had done something by the way they were acting, and Marlene went into the kitchen and poured herself a huge glass of straight vodka. Dad and Michelle were shocked just how bad it was. Dad was hurting terribly for her, but just didn’t know what he could do. The next day we got a call from Marlene from the emergency room. She had been brought in there, after firefighters were called to her apartment for a fire at 1:45 am. Brad had gotten them both out of the apartment, however, they noticed Marlene had marks from a severe beating and bad black eye. They arrested Brad on the spot. Apparently, they had been arguing, he had beaten her and ripped the phone out of the wall. Marlene went in her bedroom and cried herself to sleep. Then Brad went into her room and lit a pile of clothes on fire at end of her bed. He told the detectives that he immediately tried to extinguish the fire with a blanket. He thought he had put it out and went back into the living room. The fire wasn’t out completely, however, and he ran back in her room, woke her up and pulled them both outside. Brad’s been in jail ever since, and hopefully for a long time to come. He was put in jail that night for sexual assault in the 3rd degree, and a $750.000 bond. In court, he was given a new charge for arson bringing the bond to one million. We are still mad cause now he may get off for the sexual assault. Marlene stayed with me one night, then at Dad's, then at my sister’s. During her stay she would be on the phone quite a lot, supposedly talking to people in the NA program to help her. She didn’t seem to have any withdrawals, that we could tell, but she would get upset if we kept bugging her to get help. She said she needed to do it herself, which is true. But we were wondering whom these calls were to. She found a new apartment and we helped her move in and she seemed happy to start new, but still she was very sad. I had planned to go over and take her shopping, but she cancelled on me and said she just wanted to take it easy and go to a meeting. Dad and Michelle stopped there unannounced to bring some more things to her. When they arrived there, there was a guy there they never saw before. Dad was suspicious, but didn’t ask her -- she looked embarrassed. They left with her smiling, and she told them soon she'd have them over to dinner. Dad told her he'd be there the next morning to pick her up. Dad arrived the next morning and knocked and knocked but she didn’t answer. He sat in his van a few minutes, thinking maybe it was because he was a little early and she was still getting ready and hadn’t hear him. He went again and knocked, but no response. He went home kind of mad, thinking she must have blown him off, and went off on a drug ride or something. So, my sisters and I went to her place that evening to see her, hoping we could to talk with her. No response again. We went to the police; they said they could not break in, because it may be nothing. We went back to her place when a neighbor heard us trying to climb the window ledge to see in her front window, and he offered to go up for us. He did, and he saw her sitting on her couch, passed away. He called 911 for us, my sister managed to get in the apartment with the police for a moment to see her, but then they kicked her out. They could only tell us that they found drug paraphernalia in the room near her, and that they were treating it as a crime investigation, and took her body for an autopsy. R.I.P. DEAR SIS, I LOVE YOU!