‘We have to keep warning people’ Loved ones of fentanyl victims put up new billboard to help end stigma of opioid abuse

By Jon Kipper

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    ST. PETERS, Missouri (KMOV) — When you drive down Interstate 70 in St. Peters, you now see faces.

Faces of real people.

“So artistic. He was my singer, my painter,” said Dawn Carpenter.

People who had families and friends who loved them to death.

“She was so comical and just such a joy,” said Maggie Swafford.

And all those faces, in one way or another, ingested fentanyl and passed away.

“My son Austin was poisoned by smoking a joint,” said Jim Wilfred.

Jim Wilfred lost his son Austin last year when he unknowingly smoked a fentanyl-laced joint.

Now he makes it his mission, with his group ‘Second Chance for Life’, to end the stigma of opioid abuse – and to get resources to those who need it.

“Quit thinking that if somebody died of this drug that makes them a bad person cause I can’t tell you how many are hiding in depression and afraid to tell anybody,” said Wilfred.

And in a mini-mall parking lot Sunday – one by one -people did their best to share how fentanyl killed the people they love.

And, they showed up to see their son, or their daughter or their dad on a new billboard.

“To have even that second look on it puts it on people’s minds,” said Swafford.

For the family of Ciara Johnson, who struggled for years trying to get Ciara clean, they say the system worked against them.

“There’s no help, and these drugs are ruining their brains, they can’t ask for the help they need,” said Tina Bisioulis, holding back tears.

Dawn Carpenter’s son, Stone, died at just 18 years old.

“I didn’t know what fentanyl was until we lost Stone,” said Carpenter.

He started taking opioids after a surgery, bought a Percocet pill that ended up being fentanyl.

She tells parents to warn your kids of taking any drug not from a pharmacy or they could be planning thier child’s funeral.

“We have to stop it, we have to do something, we have to keep warning people,” said Carpenter.

And while every story is a little different… the folks who lost loved ones to fentanyl have all felt the same pain and carry similar scar tissue.

“You go through the same thing every single day, like you wake up in a nightmare,” said Bisioulis.

And will continue banding together until there’s no new faces on the billboard.

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