A devastated Colorado family is mourning the loss of a 13-year-old boy they say died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl.
Margarita Flores Velasquez choked back the tears as she described how her grandson was sitting in a sink in the bathroom on Wednesday morning.
“I’m shattered, I’m hurt, I’ve cried like you could never imagine,” Flores-Velasquez told KCNC-TV. “I said ‘Jose, Jose, I tried moving him. He was limp, cold, his mouth and fingers were purple.”
The boy had just started eighth grade at Aurora Hills Middle School on Tuesday, his family said. The boy was declared dead the following day. Jose’s relatives believe he had taken fentanyl, which was given to him from another student.
“He seemed OK,”Abisaid Hernandez, his uncle, said the following: “There was no history of him doing any types of drugs or anything like that. I think it was just the crowd he decided to hang out with, and maybe them thinking it was good to tell him ‘hey maybe try this out.'”
Jose loved to skateboard and his family shared that he had an easy smile.
The boy had two younger siblings that he and his uncle helped care for.
“We would stay with them, change their diapers, they are like my little babies,” Hernandez said. “It really, really hurts to lose him. He had his life ahead of him. He had all these amazing ideas.”
Jose and his siblings lived with their grandmother in Mexico after their mother was deported, according to the family.
The family awaits autopsy results to determine the official cause of death. Aurora Police Department confirmed that they were investigating the boy’s suicide, but did not provide any further information as the investigation remains open.
A GoFundMeHis grandmother has established a fund to pay funeral expenses.
“My desire is to provide a proper burial for my grandson.I am a grandmother raising three grandchildren.This unexpected loss is an extreme hardship to my family and me,”She wrote on the fundraising website.
Jose’s mother has applied for a temporary visa to allow her son to return home to Colorado. August 26th will be the day of Jose’s funeral.