CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — Border Patrol Agents made a record $3.5 million fentanyl bust at our nation's border yesterday.
Caldwell County 18-year-old Madison Workman died of an overdose in 2017, but that is not the end of fentanyl's impact on her family.
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Since Workman's death, her mother Amber Delvechio has been working to warn other about the dangers of the potent and cheap drug.
Delvechio said she still remembers receiving the call from Workman's friend Shakita Hammond the night she died.
"I said 'Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh what's wrong, what's wrong?' I think in my heart I knew. And she said 'Somebody left your baby on my porch and she's dead,'" Develchio said.
Investigators said they believe someone left Workman on the porch hours after a party at another home.
In 2017, Hammond took video a Workman under the influence of drugs to show her the next day.
"I think somebody got scared and brought her here. It hurts to anybody in a situation like this. I think the family deserves answers. She was beautiful inside and out," Hammond said.
Sheriff deputies said seven months later, they received a 911 call to the same house where Workman died.
[ [ALSO READ: Autopsy: 10-month-old girl died of fentanyl exposure; father charged with murder] ]
Officials said Hammond began overdosing in her yard and later died in a bedroom of the home.
Deputies said Workman and Hammonds' deaths were linked to fentanyl.
"It hit me pretty hard. I keep thinking about it. I'll probably never get it out of my mind, the way it happened. I just wish I could have done a little bit more to help her out," friend Herman Dula said.
After receiving autopsy results from several fentanyl deaths in the area, sheriff deputies in Caldwell County and police in Lenoir arrested three different people and charged them with second degree murder in connection with three separate fentanyl deaths.
In Burke County, Sheriff Steve Whisenant has seen several fentanyl deaths. He said he is trying to help low-level drug offenders get access to addiction treatment instead of being sent to the county jail through a program called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion.
"Just the pain and the suffering that's created with the families and people suffering from substance abuse is devastating. So, our thought is and I think it's becoming a national thought is help the people get off the drugs," Whisenant said.
Since her daughter's death, Delvechio has spoken publicly about the dangers of fentanyl, using a bag of salt to show the amount of the drug that killed her daughter.
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Fentanyl is not only cheap, but 40 times more potent than heroin. Delvechio has also started support groups for parents and hopes others can learn from what happened to her family.
"I wanted her life to touch others. I wanted her story to impact other people. And, I want her life to continue to change hearts and minds about addiction," Delvechio said.
North Carolina has seen drug overdoses surge faster than nearly every other state. In 2017, more than 2,300 people in the state died from opioids.