Tucker Charles Roe

March 11, 2002 – September 23, 2021

Stolen by Fentanyl

“After Tucker’s death, I became passionate about fentanyl education, as what I didn’t know then could have saved his life. The more I’ve learned about this crisis has grown into something much deeper…a mission to spread awareness, influence change, and save our future generations! A single use of these life-altering, illicit drugs that are devastating our communities can at best create a strong addiction, and at worst, take lives.” — Stefanie Turner, Mother and Founder of TXAF.ORG

Tucker Roe came into this world as a perfect, beautiful boy on March 11, 2002. He loved his friends and family as well as animals and nature. To know Tucker was to know love, because loving others is what he did so well.

He was a deep-thinker with a brilliant mind as well as an encourager to all…especially the underdog. He was the oldest of four, and a proud brother to three adoring younger sisters.

Tucker’s first experience with fentanyl was unbeknownst to him and offered by a peer as a “Xanax” pill at a New Year’s Eve party in 2021…three months prior to his 19th birthday. Fortunately, he and I shared a close relationship, and he told me about this experience after returning home from the party.

At the time, I didn’t know anything about fentanyl and neither did he, and I simply advised him to not take others’ medication again. But what I wasn’t able to share with him were the facts on fentanyl, and the extremely addictive properties and its lethal effects. What I also didn’t know is how the brain responds to fentanyl and the massive dump of dopamine (feel good chemical) that it creates when it enters the body.

I would have never imagined that this would be the beginning of the end as nothing else would help Tucker’s brain feel relief from the everyday stressors of life like he’d experienced that night.

He was a deep-thinker with a brilliant mind as well as an encourager to all…especially the underdog.”

The next nine months were very difficult for Tucker. He struggled…and we as his family struggled in knowing the best way to help him. What I now know could’ve saved my son’s life, but in January 2021, there was very little awareness on fentanyl and its deadly effects.

That summer, Tucker successfully completed a treatment program and was gracefully walking the road of sobriety. He was working full-time, training with his father for his first triathlon, and I was starting to feel like we were coming out of the hard times experienced earlier that the year.

Unfortunately, two days before his triathlon would be the last time I’d see Tucker alive. He’d stopped by to visit, and I sent him home with dinner and snacks to ensure he was prepared for his race.

After visiting that evening, he left our house and purchased two illicit “Percocet” pills from a peer on social media. After arriving at his home, he took one pill, and 12 hours later I found myself screaming and processing the most painful loss any parent could imagine…the loss of their child; my 19 year-old son was gone.

After four months of sobriety and what I thought was the best he’d ever been, he was gone to one moment of weakness in his attempt to rest and relieve the scratch within his brain that haunted him for so long. The insomnia…the stress…the pressure…it all consumed him. And the relief that he thought could be found in that pill would seal his fate and forever change everything…

After Tucker’s death, I became passionate about fentanyl education, as what I didn’t know then could have saved his life. The more I’ve learned about this crisis has grown into something much deeper…a mission to spread awareness, influence change, and save our future generations! A single use of these life-altering, illicit drugs that are devastating our communities can at best create a strong addiction, and at worst, take lives.

— Stefanie Turner, Mother & Founder of Texas Against Fentanyl