NEWS

Mother of heroin victim: 'She was trying to get clean'

Spenser Hickey, Marion Star
Bobbi Blanton, left, becomes emotional while discussing her daughter, Bailey Witzel, who was reported dead after a heroin overdose on Thursday morning. Jessica Davis, a friend, provided comfort to Blanton.

MARION – Bailey Witzel loved her 1-year-old daughter Faith, and that was what led her to seek recovery for her addiction.

"She had very high hopes," said Bailey's mother, Bobbi Blanton. "She did get to spend Mother's Day with her daughter, her wish."

Witzel, 19, died early Thursday morning. She was one of nine reported overdoses in Marion County since Wednesday. Hers was the only fatal one as of Friday evening.

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"(Faith) was the one thing she was trying very hard to get clean for," said Jessica Davis, a friend of the family. "But she had a lot of pain and depression."

People in her situation feel hopeless, Davis said, adding that she's also a recovering addict and has been clean for more than a year.

Bobbi Blanton holds up a picture of her daughter, Bailey Witzel, who was reported dead after overdosing on heroin early Thursday morning. Bailey was one of nine overdoses reported in Marion since Wednesday.

"When she was with Faith, she was a good mom," Davis said.

"And a very good aunt to my son," added Bailey's brother, Ty Witzel.

"He called her Aunty all the time," Blanton said. "We haven't explained to him where Aunty is yet."

Witzel was reported as unresponsive at 1:31 a.m., said Chief Deputy Al Hayden, with the Marion County Sheriff's Office. A Pleasant Township emergency medical squad took her to Marion General Hospital, but she was pronounced dead in the emergency room.

"It seems like a dream," Blanton said.

Davis called the widespread drug use an epidemic.

"Our children are dying because of this disease," Davis said. "We need to talk to our loved ones about this, because it doesn't have a face. You could be the richest family in the neighborhood and still have a child struggling with addiction."

Davis lives in a sober living home in Reynoldsburg, and had tried to get Bailey to join. She said the move saved her life.

"When you're in addiction, it's like it's normal, the things that you do and the way that you are," Davis said. "But it's not normal and it's not OK. We need more people who are willing to have some empathy and compassion. What an addict needs, I think, is to be lifted up and be given hope, instead of being beaten down and put down. That's one of the big reasons you become an addict."

According to the National Institutes of Health's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 1.8 percent of Americans 18 to 25 and 2 percent of Americans older than 26 have used heroin in their lifetimes.

In the Marion Police Department's annual report for 2014, Chief Bill Collins said drugs, particularly heroin, continue to put great strain on the community and the police. Almost 30 people reportedly died of drug overdoses in Marion County in 2014, more than half of them from heroin.

"Bailey loved just hanging out and being with her daughter, being with her nephew," Blanton said. "Bailey loved life in general, loved her daughter more than anything. ... She loved her daughter more than life itself."

Marion County Children Services had removed Faith from Bailey's care. Her brother said she was working to get clean and regain custody.

"She said she didn't want to live like that; she wanted to be a mother to her daughter," Davis said. "But I just don't think that she had the resources, and I don't think she knew how. She was so young."

"She went to Foundations (Recovery Center), she was going to meetings and everything she could," Ty Witzel said.

"I'm so proud (of the progress she made toward recovery)," Bobbi Blanton said.

"When she did get the opportunity to go to treatment, she gave it her all," Davis said. "She really did. And she was focused on coming out of there a better person, a better mother."

Bailey's death came as Marion police are warning the community about a much stronger and more dangerous strain of heroin being sold and used in the county. Her family hopes her story will increase awareness about the danger of drugs and the difficulties of recovery.

SHickey@gannett.com

740-375-5155

Twitter: @SpenserHickey