'Full of life': Husband mourns wife killed in rash of possible Gadsden fentanyl deaths

Sam Washington was working a security shift at the Quincy Trulieve growth facility Friday night when he, like countless work nights before, called his wife, Debra, around 7:30.

The pair chatted for 20 minutes about their respective days. He talked her through the banality of his shift, and she told him that she ran into a friend she hadn't seen in years.

Soon Washington, 52, had to make his rounds and promised to call her back "in 20 minutes," he told the Democrat. When he had a free moment, he called. The phone rang until it went to voicemail. So he called seven more times. No answer.

"That's not like my wife," he said. "I felt something wasn't right."

He told his boss, who let him go home once a replacement took over the shift.

Washington's niece picked him up and took him to the home he shared with Debra, 60, for over a decade. While on their way, he asked his neighbor if his car was home. It was. Then his neighbor knocked on the front door. No response.

When he arrived at the house on Hutley Road, in the St. Hebron Community,  Washington along with his niece and her two daughters walked into the eerily quiet house. They approached a room he described as a study where he often read and paid bills.

He saw Debra's friend slumped over on an office chair with her arms at her side. Then he saw his wife was on the floor in front of another chair.

"I will never get that out of my head," he said. "I got on my knees and said 'Oh no lord, what's going on?' "

Back story:

• 'Mass fentanyl poisoning event': Laced drugs in Gadsden claim nine lives over holiday weekend

• Two women dead in Quincy; death investigation underway by FDLE, GCSO; no foul play expected

He rushed over to his wife and noticed her lips were blue before calling 911 and performing CPR. But it was too late.

Soon the paramedics arrived and confirmed what Sam Washington has not come close to grasping: both women were dead.

Fentanyl overdoses linked to nine deaths, four cardiac arrests and six intubations in Gadsden County

Their exact cause of death is still pending, but GCSO suspects the incident was connected to fentanyl-laced drugs that killed seven others in the county over the holiday weekend. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) called it "a potential mass fentanyl poisoning event."

The overdoses also caused four cardiac arrests and six intubations, said GCSO Lt. Anglie Holmes.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, has slowly replaced heroin in recent years and has been found in adulterated street drugs, from fake Xanax bars to methamphetamines. "We think this fentanyl was laced with marijuana and or cocaine," the Gadsden County Sheriff Morris A. Young said in the Facebook video Sunday.

Washington said his wife was not a drug user, and only took prescription medication to treat her diabetes, high blood pressure and pain from knee injuries.

"I don't know what happened when we got off the phone," he said. "I've been torn up ever since."

Sheriff's officials said there was evidence at the scene that led them to suspect fentanyl was involved. They did not say what exact evidence was found in the home.

GCSO spokesperson Lt. Anglie Holmes said there was no update on the weekend's cases including autopsy results, as of Wednesday afternoon.

Additionally, Quincy city officials and spokespeople from local law enforcement agencies pledged to begin training officers to administer Narcan, a medicine used in opioid overdose emergencies.

"This small device could save a life," said QPD Assistant Chief Leroy Smith while holding up a box of Narcan nasal spray. He continued: “To the families of these victims, we are very sorry for your loss."

Local pastors and chaplains scheduled a prayer event for Friday at 9:30 a.m. in front of the Gadsden County Courthouse to "help calm the community during this time of the rampant drug situation."

'We were like Bonnie and Clyde'

Sam and Debra met through mutual friends in Chattahoochee.

He said he fell in love with her charm, and that "everybody loved her" for the same reason.

When they began dating, she worked as a certified nursing assistant — a job she loved but would eventually be forced to surrender due to a variety of health issues including high-blood pressure, diabetes and knee surgery.

While the two never had kids together, they helped raise each other's children and grandchildren. Debra had six kids, Sam had two.

"We were always a tight family," he said, adding that large family gatherings were very common in Quincy.

From their first year together and every day since their wedding at the Gadsden County Courthouse, they were inseparable.

"We were like Bonnie and Clyde," he said. "We did everything together."

Going out to dinner, listening to music, attending church together and  seeing their children and grandchildren were common routines that Washington said will never be the same.

The pair would have celebrated 20 years of marriage in September, Washington said.

"She was full of life," he told the Democrat through tears. "Every time I think about what happened I get so torn up because... my wife was happy when we talked on the phone last.

"I just can't believe this."

Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gadsden County family mourns after possible fentanyl overdose kills mother