Kimberly Ellis Loy wrote a letter to her future self during the week of Thanksgiving 2022 while in a drug rehabilitation program, imagining the sober life she was working to create.
The 42-year-old pledged to attend Kennesaw State University to become a certified counselor and help other people recover from substance abuse. Her son was about to get married, and Loy was looking forward to becoming a grandmother, she wrote.
A few weeks later, on Dec. 10 of that year, staff at Highland Rivers Behavioral Health found Loy dead in her room after an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. She was about to graduate from the institution’s Mothers Making a Change program in Marietta.
Loy’s death marked a failure of the program’s leadership, according to investigative records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The state found that Highland Rivers was neglectful, failing to perform basic procedures that could have prevented the overdose.
“She was let down, and so was her family,” said Josh Ellis, her brother. “She had a dream. She had plans.”
The state investigation by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) found staff was not properly trained and did not have adequate supervision — Loy was not fully searched and did not receive the required drug test upon her return to the facility from grocery shopping.
After the death investigation, the state issued Highland Rivers a corrective action plan, outlining program improvements that must be...
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