Tom’s tragic drug relapse
THOMAS Franklin said he was turning his life around in the months before he was found dead in a Southport park, his mother says.
Having struggled with drug addiction for several years on the Gold Coast, the father-of-one returned to live with his family in Woy Woy, on the NSW Central Coast, and was clean for the first time in a long time.
“He was happy and healthy and working to make a better life for himself and his daughter,” said his mother Lisa Close.
“I just don’t want him to be remembered only as the man who was dumped in the park.”
Mr Franklin’s body, wearing only shorts, was found in a bush reserve behind Ned Twohill Equestrian Park, near West King Lane. He died from a suspected drug overdose.
A person, believed to have left the body in the park, called triple-0 in the early hours of December 12.
Ms Close said the person told officers they found Mr Franklin “purple and not breathing”.
“Instead of calling for help they picked him up and dumped him in the park,” she said. “An inquest into his death will be about whether he passed away before or after he was left there.
“At first I was thinking: ‘No, it’s not Tom, it couldn’t be Tom’ but then I got angry and I’m still so angry because I need to know what happened.
“Why didn’t they just call an ambulance?”
Ms Close said her son, 27, who had been living in Currumbin before his death, reached “rock bottom” before leaving the Gold Coast.
“He got into a bit of trouble (with the law) and they kind of gave him a choice – rehab or jail. His friends say he never had an addiction problem until after he got out of rehab.
“When he was in there he was looking to connect with people and the people he connected with were addicts.
“He met his daughter’s mother in there and then they had a little girl.”
After being clean for about three months and becoming involved with a support group called Man Up, Mr Franklin and his family returned to the Gold Coast for a holiday.
While here, he reconnected with old associates who led him astray, Ms Close said.
“We came up here (on December 10) to see Tom’s daughter. It was just a great couple of days. He went to spend the afternoon with his daughter and was going to go to the movies. That’s the last time we saw him.”
Ms Close said as the parent of an addict, she knew at the back of her mind “you can get that phone call anytime”. “But Tom was doing so well I thought that’s one thing I didn’t have to worry about now.”
The coroner is investigating the circumstances of his death.
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