Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Amanda Butterfield Reporting A Utah County father who lost his daughter to drugs is now going after the people who supplied her, and there are cash rewards for help in any arrests.
He's got a website up and running and is spreading posters around the valley. They're like Wild West wanted posters. The outlaws are drug dealers.
Lance Merrill tried to get his daughter to stop doing drugs. Now that she's dead, he's going after the drug dealers so his daughter's death isn't in vain.
When the last picture was taken of Jani Merrill, she weighed around 100 pounds and she was 19 years old. She was addicted to heroin.
Lance Merrill/Father: "She'd snort it, mix it with water, and snort it. She did that until February, then she started to shoot in February."
It killed her October first.
Lance Merrill/Father: "Jani was addicted to a monster, and she couldn't control it."
It was from Jani's death, her father designed the website dads against drug dealers.com.
Lance Merrill/Father: "God has called me to do this, and I know He has."
It's meant to help families deal with drug addictions.
Lance Merrill: "When someone finds out their kids are using drugs, short of the Yellow Pages there are very few resources."
The site has only been up and running a few days. Eventually it'll have links to different drug recovery centers, and posts from recovering addicts.
What you will find on it now is a link to submit tips to get drug dealers off the street.
Lance Merrill/Father: "If you know who is selling your child or loved ones drugs, you want that guy arrested."
How it works: You post the name of who you believe is supplying your loved one with drugs, then offer a 500 dollar bounty for any help in proving it.
Lance Merrill/Father: "You'll remain anonymous. Your name won't be on the website, but you'll sponsor the bounty."
From there, any information is given to the Utah County Major Crimes Unit.
And even if you can't afford a 500 dollar bounty, your tips are still welcome.
It's all for Jani, the girl who had hopes of being a beautician and raising a family when she was in high school, but who lost it all to heroin.
Lance Merrill/Father: "It sounds trite to say she's in a better place, but she's free. She's herself again."
You can get to the website by following the link above.
If you have a tip about a dealer, include a car description, license plate number and address -- anything you can.
