Fathers to Offer Bounty for Drug Dealers

Fathers to Offer Bounty for Drug Dealers


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Ashley Hayes Reporting The State Medical Examiner's office finds heroin kills more Utahns in their early twenties than any other illegal drug.

Two fathers living in Orem who lost their children to heroin overdoses are trying to reverse those numbers.

They are creating a website where they place bounties on drug dealer's heads. They say they've tested it and it works.

The site's not up yet, but already the men are receiving threats. That's the reason some of the pictures in this piece are blurred.

Fathers to Offer Bounty for Drug Dealers

The Merrill's most recent family picture is the last photograph with the Orem couple's fourth child, Jani.

Lance Merrill, Daughter Died of Heroin Overdose: "She was going to go to beauty school and become a beautician, find a husband and have kids and just do what people do. She won't now."

Neither will Terry Petrie's son Jordan.

Fathers to Offer Bounty for Drug Dealers

His brother documented Jordan's life in pictures posted online.

Terry Petrie, Son died of Heroine Overdose: "We got a phone call at 5:48 am Tuesday morning, and it was like being hit by a sledgehammer."

Jordan and Jani overdosed on heroin.

Merrill: "I had a very calm, peaceful talk with her a few days before her death, and I asked her, 'Jani, do you want to die?' 'No, Dad, I don't want to die.' She loved life."

But heroin gripped her and after every overdose Jani's father says her dealer was waiting.

Fathers to Offer Bounty for Drug Dealers

Merrill: "Chris C. had called her 37 times in two days, between text and phone."

Messages read, "Do you have any?" "No, call back in an hour."

Merrill says Chris Cartwright would drive by the family's house at night and throw drugs through Jani's bedroom window. He's awaiting trial on multiple drug charges.

And Jordan Petrie? His dealer attended his funeral service.

Petrie: "If you come out of a treatment center, the first visits you get are from your drug dealer."

Brazen behavior, but it gave Merrill an idea.

Merrill: "All we want to do is offer the bounty so we can get the information to police, so that these people can be arrested."

Merrill and Petrie have secured the domain "Dads Against Drug Dealers.Com." For every dealer featured on their site, an arrest and conviction will pay anonymous tipsters upwards of 500 dollars.

And it works. Merrill offered one drug user a new long board. Within hours Jani's dealer landed in jail.

These fathers hope to take more dealers off the streets and, in the process, spread awareness.

Petrie: "If we don't talk about this, too many people are gonna get a phone call like we did."

Scanning through the obituaries and visiting his daughter's grave, Merrill is more determined than ever to make his plan work.

Merrill: "She told the bishop, 'I don't want to use, but it's like a monster in the closet.'"

A monster Jani's father hopes to keep from forever altering another family's photos.

According to the State Medical Examiner's office, heroin is the most common overdose drug for adults 25 years old and younger.

Of the 128 illegal drug deaths in 2004, 97 of them involved heroin. In 2005, 101 of the total 127 illegal drug overdoses were linked to heroin.

A non-profit account has been set up for "DadsAgainstDrugDealers.com" at all Far West Banks.

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