MAN LEFT TO ROT FOR WEEKS IN CITY RECOVERY FACILITY
Family looking for answers in son’s death
TROY, N.Y. » A mother is looking for answers after the decomposing body of her son was found in a supportive living center, weeks after the family was told he’d left the place.
For the sake of his 3-year- old daughter, Raolik Walls, 27, decided in June of last year to seek treatment for his addiction to marijuana, and MDMA (Molly), and to begin getting his life back in order, according to his mother, Yvonne Ketter-Walls.
He started by entering the St. Peter’s Addiction Recovery Center in Troy. From there went to live in a halfway house; after that, on or about Nov. 30, he checked into the Hudson Mohawk Recovery Center’s Support- ive Living for Men facility.
His family would never see him alive again.
Ketter-Walls said her son was quite good about calling her on a weekly basis, even during periods of relapse, to let her know he was OK.
“He would find a way to call me,” she said.
The last time she ever spoke to him on the phone was on Dec. 3. They talked about his plans to attend Hudson Valley Community College, and his concerns about finding a job in the field he wished to study.
“I told him, ‘Do what you want to do, we’ll worry about the job later,’” Ketter-Walls said.
Ketter-Walls lives in New Jersey, but her sister lives in Schenectady and had been in contact with Walls regu-
larly, bringing him items he needed. After not hearing from him for several days, she went to the Hudson Mohawk facility on Dec. 9 and was told Walls had checked out days prior.
The family learned that Walls had stormed out of a group meeting at the facility, held either Dec. 2 or 3. Thinking he’d left the facility, and not knowingwhere he was or whether or not he was alive, the family began searching. Walls’ sister filed a missing persons report with the Troy Police Department on Dec. 9.
Troy Assistant Police Chief Dan DeWolf said detectives contacted the facility and were told Walls had checked out on Dec. 2. Officers didn’t go to the facility, and wouldn’t normally do so, according to DeWolf.
Ketter-Walls said her family searched everywhere they could think of for her son, checking parks, shelters, hospitals, morgues, friends’ houses, and places he’d been known to frequent. They heard rumors he was with a woman, and feared for his safety.
One day they showed his photo at a Burger King he often stopped at and were told by a worker there they’d seen him recently.
“We had hope,” Ketter-
Walls said.
On Jan. 11, Walls’ decomposing body was found in his room at Hudson Mo hawk Recovery Center’ s Supportive Living for Men by someone conducting a monthly pestcontrol check. A medical examiner told the family that Walls had likely died on Dec. 3 from a cardiac arrhythmia. What caused that isn’t known. Ketter-Walls said there were no drugs in her son’s system beyond what he’d been prescribed.
“To me, it was a relief to know he was on the right track, but I still don’t know why my son died,” KetterWalls said.
She wonders what the medical examiner might have learned had her son’s body been found sooner.
The family learned of Walls’ death from a resident at the facility. It would be several hours after that before someone from HudsonMohawk contacted KetterWalls.
She and her family were allowed into the facility “so we could get some closure.” What they saw didn’t jibe at all with what they’d been told about Raolik. KetterWalls said her son’s belongings were still in his room, as was his room key. Food he’d bought was left around, rotting. The place smelled of decomposition, she said, and she doesn’t understand why it seems no one ever checked in on her son, or why they’d
told her that he’d left whenhe clearly hadn’t.
“It made no sense to me ... that no one could take the time to check onmy son,” she said. “If pest control hadn’t come through, would he still be there, rotting?”
Ketter-Walls said she’s reported the matter to the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, and has asked that the use of her son’s EBT card be looked into
The family is considering legal action to follow the state investigations.
“I want these people fired and this facility shut down,” Ketter-Walls said in an interview Thursday. “And for the (residents) there to go to a place where they will love and care for them.”
The Justice Center has confirmed that there is an open and active investigation into a death at the Hudson-Mohawk facility, but wouldn’t comment further.
Hudson-Mohawk facilities are licensed by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).
“OASAS has been advised by the Justice Center that they are investigating a case involving a death at this provider location and we are cooperating fully with this investigation,” said OASAS Spokesman Evan Frost. “Additionally, OASAS has been monitoring this program since notification of the in-
cident, including conducting unannounced site visits. Due to patient confidentiality laws, we cannot comment further on the details.”
Calls to Hudson-Mohawk Recovery Center Inc. were not returned Thursday.
The last time Ketter-Walls physically saw her son was in October, during one of his visits with his daughter, who turned four in February.
“She understands death, unfortunately, at this age,” said Ketter-Walls. “When we told her, she knew exactly what it meant, she just didn’t understand why.”