FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — One Frankfort family has come together at their mom and grandmother's home to share laughs and stories. Memories of loved ones can be found all around the room.
Last year was a difficult one for them. The family lost two loved ones to fentanyl, within months of each other. A mother and daughter, Kelli, and a son, brother, and grandson, Mark.
Kelli’s mother and Mark’s grandmother, Betty Robinson, says, "I mean it, there's no words to describe that… The pain and anguish."
Mark Conolly passed away last March, at 28-years-old, just two days before his birthday. He died in the Franklin County Regional Jail. The Franklin County Coroner's reports confirm that his death was fentanyl related. Connolly’s death is still being investigated by the Frankfort Police Department. This family says he did struggle with addiction.
Connolly’s mom, Lori Perry, explains, "It was filling a void, it was the way that he coped with his pain, you know sometimes, but Mark would cry and break down to me at different times, and I'll never forget the time that he asked me to just hold him as he cried for his family."
This family says Connolly's addiction is part of what led to his arrest — but they want people to know that he was so much more.
Now, they are looking for answers from Franklin County's Regional Jail on how this could have happened.
"How can Mark, so savage, so big, so amazing, have been locked up for such a period of time and be gone?" asks Perry.
This family says they don't think that incarceration is the answer for people battling addiction. For someone like Connolly, who they described as a smart and motivated young man, they wanted to see him in a rehabilitation center and get access to more vocational training while serving his sentence. Living in the capital, they want to see legislators do more.
Robinson says, "It's somebody's child. It's somebody's grandchild, it's somebody's uncle, aunt, sister, brother. And people say 'oh they're just drug addicts', no they were somebody's child. Something has to be done, and we can start right here in Franklin County for Kentucky."
This family has seen the effects that drugs like fentanyl can have. It's something they wouldn't wish on anyone.
Perry says, "Abstinence is the only way, but you have to have a spiritual awakening from God as well. And if Mark ever could've got, instead of being locked in the jail cell, if he could've ever progressed and maybe gotten the seed planted somewhere, then he would have bloomed into this beautiful flower again."
This family is still looking for answers to these painful questions and hoping to see a change in this community.
