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A portrait is one of the few thinss Sersio
who died of a "cheese" heroin overdose in January at age
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17.
'Cheese'held a
firm grip on teen
By DTANNE SOLIS
Staff Writer
dsolis@dallasnews.com
Sergio Aviles kneels to pour
dirt'into a hole, onto a wooden
box holding the ashes of his
daughter Sarah. You are saf'e
now,"he says. You arehome."
Sarah's mother, Maria, weeps
for the 17-year-old she saw as her
best friend. Wind chimes play a
gentle song. Their youngest, 8-
year-old Jessica, places a yellow
daisyonthe grave.
But no one in this family is
restingin peace.
Sergio and MariaAviles live in
flashbacks now, trying to understand Sarah's addiction to
"cheese." It's a Iliendly name for a
drug that's particularly deadly to
children: heroin cut with Tylenol.
SARAH'S
PARENTS
and best
friend
remember
her.
dallasnews
.com/video
See'CHEESE' page 24A
244
Sunday, March
15,2oo9
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
ll
Maria Aviles got a tattoo as a permanent tribute to her
"God will forgive the things she did and the bad
things we did," says Sarah's father, Sergio.
daughter, whom Maria considered her best friend.
Continued from Page
1A
It's cheap, diluted and highly
addictive.
Authorities have linked
to the deaths of at least
32 young people in the Dallas
cheese
area since 2005. Sarah was r-rne
ofthe latest. She died Jan. 12 at
the Palomino Motel andTrailer
Park in West Dallas.
A
pref,cy
girl with a heart-
shaped face and a "thug life"
tattoo, she died after two years
of addiction, two stints in drug
treatment, and fights with parents who tried to save her, achingly described in herjournals.
Sarah wrote about a family
fractured by divorce, a stunted
education, and a childhood
stolen by drugs. While her
mother called her a goofball
who made everyone laugh, Sarah called herselfa gangbanger
andhomita,ahomegirl.
Toward the end, as an exercise at her drug-treatment center, she wrote her own obituary:
'A l7-year-old Hispanic female wasfound died. She uent
to Emmi,t J. Conrad High
members telling her. But Sarah
Lovedto act
Sarah Alejandra Aviles was
born on March 25, 1991. She
was the second child of Maria
Sue Aviles, a 20-year-old Ital-
ian-American from Kentucly
married three years to Sergio
Aviles, an immigrant from cen-
tral Mexico.
Maria learned Spanish and
rituals of Roman Catholicism,
though she was BaPtist. Maria
got her child's name {iom a Bibie story about a beautiful
woman. When Sergio saw his
daughter, 'he looked at her and
fell in love," Maria says.
Sarah was a child who loved
2
lot of her friends aere
gang banger and they sold
drugs. She had a 2l-gear-old
brotheq and a S-yenr-old baby
sister, a l,ooing, stugeling mother but afatherthat wosnTrealy
there."
d*gt
On Sarah's 15th birthday,
Jessica Perez gave birth to a little girl. Sarah's brother was the
father.
where people use drugs.
'About me doing drugs
ain't gone lie.
I
I
lmow a rekqtse
is bound to come. I tued to just
sit in a trap hustlen and get-
tinghigh..."
'Cheese is heroin'
Soon, Sarah met Franklin
Drug-treatment centers in
the Dallas area report that
The drug is snorted rather than
injected, making it seem less
cheese
is a leading addiction.
drugs on the streets, mixing
dangerous. Hispanics are hit
presented by scattered Papers.
Another day, she'd PlaY the grocer, handing out cans ofvegetables and sauces. She liked to
help with housework - a trait
that pleased her mother. She
also liked to do landscaPing
drug concoctions for herself,
according to her journal and
her mother. Maria pleaded
with Sarah to come back and
live with her. Once, they even
with immigrants.
teacher
with
work with her father, telling
him howwonderful itwas that
he liked nature.
But by the age
of
11, Sarah's
Her parents seParated,
in
Dealing
And there were drugs. In
"trap houses," slang for places
a
9thgrada Her nameaas Sarah
Alejandra Aailes. Sarah was u
beautful goung utomen but
had problems hanging with the
wrongcrowd.
rocts
"...1t hurted a lot. That's
when I sta?-ted daing a lot of
crap and liaing on my oan and
growingup toofast."
says. "She wanted to be {iee."
students re-
to act. One day, she'd be
life began to unravel.
and
friend Jessica Perez, Sarah was
experimenting with cocaine.
didnt like discipline," Maria
Guevara, who went by "Chino."
She moved in with him and his
parents. And she began dealing
the
School
took it hard. By the time she
was in middle school, says best
rah in school. They blame her
truancy on her boyfriend. "She
Her
mother was jailed for cocaine
possession, serving 154 daYs.
gotinto afistfight.
But Maria's home was less
than ideal. She lives in northeast Dallas'Five Points neighborhood. The area is the citys
worst for violent crime, police
say.
And while
it
may look
and
pleasant enough in daylight,
there are signs of trouble. At
Marias complex sits a truck
Maria lost their house in Garland, unable to make the PaY-
with a decal of Jesirs Malverde,
the Mexican folk saint of the
ments.
drugrunner.
Maria explained to
daughter
that the
her
familY
rn'ouldnt be together as it once
was. "I can't make him want to
be with me, Sarah," Maria re-
Sarah was enrolled three
times in ninth grade at Conrad
High School and Lake Highlands High School. Her parents said they tried to keep Sa-
hardest, they say, especially
Spanish-speaking families
"Everyone has to remember
that cheese is heroin," says Lt.
Andrew Acord of the Dallas
Police Department's narcotics
division.
Users dont realize how
quicklytheycan get addicted to
heroin, even heroin that's diluted, says Dr. BryonAdinoff, a
drug-abuse specialist atthe UT
Southwestern Medical Center.
"These kids aren't even aware
of it because they are taking
day.
it
Then they find
themselves going into withdrawal. Eve4.thing hurts and
everything aches and you just
every
want to die.
"It is a very very difficult
drug to get away from. Once
'Cheese'
ttre tas tew yeirs of giili using
cheese as the primary drug that
took turns tryrs to care foi
her. Sergio took Sarah on his
theyuse."
landscaping jobs. Maria tried
Sarah's journals describe
how as she turned 17, her
to
sweets. But Sarah craved hero-
her'
in.
friends
The staff brought a cake. A
held grip
on teen
E
you get
frld-iCred,
has
changedyourbrain."
Federal officials are monitoringthe Dallas problem an
unusual one due to howyoung
the victims are. The drug is
particularly cheap, at $2 to $10
for a packet.
Sarahplayed Bonnie to Chino's Clyde, says Jessica Perez,
-
who says she begged Sarah to
"upgrade" her friends.
Alosingbattle
In September 2007, Sarah
was arrested after a purse
snatching
in
Garland. When
juvenile court authorities realized she was an addict, they
sent her
Center,
to Nexus
a
Recovery
residential drug-
treatment center for women
and girls. Sarah spent much of
week later, she was released'
Sarah was eager to renew her
relationship with her little sister, Jessica. She feared her JJ
would turn outlike her.
"I looe mg babg sis so
tiael much
"...Ibe been in treatmentfor
6 months and if I go back uith
might put mg self in
danger and in a relaltse situation again. I am so scared that
I'll go back to the same old [en'
pletioel and do dru,gs ..."
Sarah lost that battle. Shortlybefore her 17th birthday, she
confessed she took cheese heroin while at Nexus, according
to her mother and her journal.
Maria went to the probation
officer, asking that a complaint
be filed
with the state,
would
[erple-
try
mg
Ibebeen auay.I thank godfor
her and I pra,y that she stays
whowas injailfortheft.
I
I
hardest ta mnke her happg and
forgive me through all tluis time
the last of her 16th yearEere.
She was aware she could relapse. And she missed Chino,
him,
at Nexus serenaded
she said.
str ong and do esnT feel lonely i.n
this uorld. I lnae mg JJ."
Despite her troubles, Sarah's journals are full of decals
of Tinker Bell and tiaras, and
script in hot pink. Little hearts.
Andaprayer:
"Our Fathsr, uho
After one failed drug buy,
Sarah met a dealer who invited
her to a house in a West Dallas
neighborhood known as Los
Altos. Following her was a protective Jessica Perez, who recounted what happened.
"He pulled out abig old mir-
ror and they did a couple of
lines," she says. "They ex-hanged numbers."
Sarah called him again and
again, her family believes.
Maria last saw Sarah on the
a{ternoon ofJan. 11, when she
told her she was going to take
the train to eat. Maria remem-
bers her pony-tailed daughter,
wavinggoodbye.
At 2:30 in the morning on
art in
heaoen, hallowed be Thy name.
... lead, us not into temptation
but dnlioer usfrom eail. .......... "
'I gotyou, girl'
"Hey, little mama, what do
you need?" says a drug dealer.
"I iust gotiacked, man," Sarah responds.
"I gotyou, girl. I gotyou,"he
says.
So began Sarah's final de-
Nexus officials wouldnt confirm that Sarah was a patient.
But Nexus Executive Director Becca Crowell warned: 'W"e
scent.
She had returned to Nexus
for one more staybut ran away
of
after two months. Her parents
have seen an increase in each
replace her cravings with
Jan. 12, Maria awoke, believing
something was wrongwith her
daughter. Sarah wasnt home.
She called her cellphone, Ieaving messages.'Where are you
at, baby?"
In his separate apartment,
Sergio awoke
with a similar
sense that something was not
right.
Sarah was found dead that
morning. Her rosary abracelet
with images of Catholic saints,
a ring and her phonewere never found, though when Maria
called the phone days later, a
mananswered.
She lay in a coma for hours,
according to the Dallas County
medical examiner, who ruled
the death an overdose ofheroin
and cocaine.
Sarah's birthday
is
next
week. She would have been 18.
Burying Sarah
At the cemetery
as Sarah's
family remembers her. And the wind
ashes are buried, her
strums the chimes.
"Hopefully, it wont happen
to others, other kids," Maria
says.
lMe will always love her,"
Sergio says. "C,od will forgive
the things she did and the bad
thingswedid."
"Amen."