A California mother was left devastated after her two teenage children died just 10 months apart after falling victim to an “invisible killer.”
Tyler Gordon, 18, was found unconscious on the floor of his bedroom around 9 a.m. on April 23, 2020 after taking what he thought was Percocet that he purchased on Snapchat. Mercury News reports.
The drug, however, contained fentanyl and caused the teen to suffer a fatal overdose.
Her younger sister, Jenna, 16, died less than a year later, on February 24, 2021, after taking counterfeit Xanax, which investigators later determined was pure fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine.
“This should never have happened,” said his still-grieving mother, Tammy Lyon-Gordon. he told KTLA. “It still doesn’t seem real to me.”
Tyler Gordon, 18, and Jenna Gordon, 16, died just 10 months apart after unknowingly taking fentanyl.
He went on to call the powerful drug an “invisible killer,” noting that none of his children had “any idea they were taking fentanyl.”
“Having them die at home, a place where they felt safe, haunts me every day.”
Shortly before his untimely death, Tyler began working in the same business as his mother. In the short time he was working there, Lyon-Gordon said, management had already been thinking about promoting him.
But Tyler had also planned to attend Mt. Saint Jacinto College and then transfer to Cal State Fullerton, where his girlfriend attended, to study music production.
It seemed like a big change for the teen, who had previously received outpatient treatment and group therapy for opioid addiction.
He detoxed in September 2019 and Lyon-Gordon told Mercury News he believes his son remained sober from that point until his death.
I was busy. I was working,’ he said. “So in Tyler’s case, I honestly think he was in such a good place that he thought, ‘Hey, he’s not going to hurt me.’
“I didn’t see the signs.”
Tammy Lyon-Gordon, their grieving mother, says she is still haunted by their deaths.
He said Tyler had recently gotten a job and had been planning to study music production when he died on April 23, 2020.
Less than a year later, Jenna was sitting in her bedroom with her boyfriend, Raymond Gene Tyrrell II, when prosecutors said he and Jenna were sharing one of six counterfeit Percocet pills she obtained, crushing them and snorting them in her bedroom.
The two were found unconscious in their room shortly before 7 pm on February 24, 2021 and were rushed to a local hospital.
Raymond Gene Tyrrell II was convicted over the summer of involuntary manslaughter in Jenna’s death.
Tyrrell was resuscitated and survived, but Jenna was pronounced dead about an hour later.
He was then charged with a single count of murder on March 1 of that year, after the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office pledged to crack down on those supplying fentanyl.
A jury finally convicted Tyrrell of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter last summer, and he was sentenced to three years in prison on July 31. reports the San Bernardino Sun.
Lyon-Gordon later said she was disappointed by the jury’s decision.
“To say I am devastated by the jury’s verdict is an understatement,” the mother said in her victim impact statement at Tyrrell’s sentencing hearing.
“The jury’s decision yesterday brought me to my knees because I feel like I’ve lost my daughter again,” she said, recounting how Jenna aspired to attend college in Montana and become an equine veterinarian.
The two were sitting in Jenna’s room on February 24, 2021 when they snorted counterfeit Percocet pills that Tyrrell obtained, which were actually pure fentanyl.
Jenna had dreamed of attending college in Montana and becoming an equine veterinarian.
“On February 24, 2021, my entire world changed for the second time: I lost my son to someone else,” Lyon-Gordon said.
‘While the paramedics were at my house trying to save my daughter, I was on my knees begging God to let me switch places with Jenna, to take me.
“I’ve lost 95 pounds since Jenna’s life was taken,” he continued. ‘I had already lost my 18-year-old son.
‘I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t breathe because of my constant anxiety. I have been battling depression for over three years, I am in constant fight or flight mode.
“I don’t have dreams when I sleep anymore,” Lyon-Gordon added. ‘I feel like a shell of the person I used to be.
“I had one purpose in life and that was to be his mother,” she said. “(Tyrrell) stole my life’s purpose from me.”
Lyon-Gordon said the loss of her children has left her with anxiety and depression.
The grieving mother went on to say that she believes Tyrrell is a “real danger to our community and society.”
‘He knew my son had died from a fake Percocet, and he knew others who had also died from it. He himself almost died from the fake pills, but he still gave them to her knowing the dangers.
But in his own statement, read by his lawyer Charles Kenyon, Tyrrell said he was “deeply remorseful” for his actions and any role he played in Kenna’s death.
“I cared about Jenna and would never have done anything to hurt her,” the attorney read. ‘I’m sorry for the pain I have caused your family and friends.
“I will go to drug treatment because I know I will fight this for the rest of my life,” he promised. ‘If I can save someone else from drugs, I promise to do it too.
“I regret my actions and will live with this shameful burden of regret for the rest of my life.”
DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Anthony Chrysantis warned that fentanyl is still in the community, despite the agency’s efforts to get it off the streets.
Meanwhile, California officials are working to reduce opioid overdoses.
It currently has one of the highest rates of fatal fentanyl overdoses, with the majority of shipments entering the United States from Mexico, according to the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
“This drug that comes from the cartels is out there, and you have to be careful because if you get the wrong substance, you can die,” warned DEA Deputy Special Agent in Charge Anthony Chrysantis.
He said the department’s seizure of fentanyl, both in powder and pill form, is at record levels.
In 2023, federal agents seized more than 29,000 pounds of illicit drugs, nearly double the amount ingested compared to the previous two years.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, California, fentanyl overdoses and poisonings skyrocketed 1,652 percent: from 109 deaths in 2016 to 1,910 deaths in 2022, according to the Department of Public Health.
Still, there are some good signs, as the rate of increase slowed in 2023 with a smaller three percent increase to 1,970 deaths and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reporting that deaths from fentanyl overdoses and poisoning have decreased by 30 percent.
“Since 2023, we have recovered over 3 million fentanyl pills,” said Lt. Bobby Dean, who oversees the Sheriff’s Department’s Overdose Response Task Force. “More than 150 kilos of powdered fentanyl is enough to kill the entire state of California.”
He noted that more than 27 fentanyl cases are currently being prosecuted and “all of those individuals face a mandatory minimum of 20 years.”
Chrysantis also said the DEA is “taking everything we can off the streets, trying to make them safer.” But there are an infinite amount of these synthetic opioids.
“As long as there is money to be made, they will be there,” he warned.
As drugs continue to flood the streets, Lyon-Gordon urges other parents to be careful.
“I’m living in the worst pain possible,” he told KTLA.
“Talk to your children about the dangers,” he urged. “Don’t lose them to this drug.”
