Police are investigating the death of an 11-year-old central New York boy who appears to have died from a drug overdose.
Ashton Degonzaque, a 6th grader at Grant Middle School in Syracuse, was found unconscious and not breathing at his home on Thursday and was rushed to Upstate University Hospital in critical condition but died several hours later, WSTM reported.
DeGonzaque’s great aunt, Vickie Homer, told the Syracuse Post-Standard that doctors told her they found fentanyl and cannabis in the boy’s system. He also had burns on his legs and sores on his ankles, and his head had been shaved because of lice, she said.
Police and prosecutors did not confirm Homer’s report, but Homer and her brother, Robert DeGonzaque, said they had called Onondaga County Child Protective Services on multiple occasions to get help.
“I wish they (CPS) could be sent those pictures of my nephew and what he looked like on that gurney at the hospital, because I’d like to tell them that’s what they helped contribute to by not removing him,” Homer said.
A spokesperson for the county agency declined to comment, citing the investigation.
Robert DeGonzaque told the newspaper that he and another sister had been the boys primary caretakers since he was an infant and that he became the sole primary caretaker when his sister died a few years ago. But in October, he moved to Virginia, where he was closer to his son, leaving the boy with his father, Jeremy DeGonzaque.
After moving, he said he frequently checked in the Child Protective Services but was repeatedly assured that the boy’s father was doing fine and testing negative for drugs.
“I don’t know how he fell through the cracks. I wished I could’ve stayed there,” Robert DeGonzaque said.
Homer told the Post-Standard the apartment where the boy was living was known as a drug house and that Ashton found the body of a man who died of an overdose in the building a few months ago. CPS said that wasn’t enough to remove the boy from the situation.
“I can’t even tell you the disbelief that we had after we heard like somebody dying in there and ODing is not enough,” Homer said.
Homer and DeGonzaque both said the warning signs were there — trouble in school, lice, bedbugs in the house, citations for trash,
“They failed him,” Homer said. “This could have been prevented. If they would have removed him from that house, he could be alive right now.”
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Ashton DeGonzaque/handout]
