Contact Dianne Williamson at dwilliamson@telegram.com
The clean-cut, handsome young man who appeared before Judge Michael Allard-Madaus March 6 was unfailingly polite and respectful.
Cody Hider had been arrested the night before for possession of heroin, and the district court judge gave the talk he gives too often to the seemingly countless addicts shuttled through the system.
"This is a disease that wants to kill you," the judge told Cody, noting that his desk is stacked with death certificates of defendants who have overdosed on opiates. "You're in the crosshairs at 23."
Cody grew emotional as the judge continued and blinked back tears. He said he realized he needed help and planned to get it. He had a good job and clean record; Allard-Madaus assigned him a lawyer, ordered that he undergo random drug testing and released him on personal recognizance.
"I could not as a judge have felt more comfortable that I had reached this kid," Allard-Madaus said. "I'm not a neophyte and I know all about addiction, but this kid made an impression on me. He was courteous and receptive. He thanked me on the way out."
Two days later, Cody Hider was dead. On Thursday, hundreds turned out to mourn the popular Spencer native with the brilliant blue eyes and ready grin, the engaging guy who adored animals and the outdoors, the loving son who brought his new girlfriend to meet his parents two days before he died. They heard the priest describe addiction as a "spider web" that ensnares its victims and doesn't let go, a scourge that devastates sons and daughters from the best of families.
"This is the new breed of people afflicted with opiate addiction," said Allard-Madaus. "I liked this kid. He was a good kid with a bad problem."
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| Cody Hider of Spencer, 23, left his loved ones in shock and remorse. (SUBMITTED PHOTO) |
Everyone liked Cody Hider. As a youngster he was every teacher's pet; as an athlete at David Prouty High he earned plaudits from coaches for his devotion to varsity baseball and track and field. After he graduated he spent three semesters at UMass Dartmouth before leaving for a full-time job as an insulation engineer, where he impressed his bosses with his long hours and solid work ethic.
"His mother and I raised him well," said Cody's father, Christopher Hider. "He did all the things you'd expect from an all-American kid."
His parents believe Cody's heroin addiction started shortly before college, after he took painkillers for a multitude of sports-related injuries. For the past three years he used off and on, and his parents sometimes found needles and other drug paraphernalia in his bedroom. He was in and out of rehab and at one point enrolled in an inpatient drug rehab program in Falmouth; when he was discharged, his parents drove him daily for outpatient treatment.
Cody had seemed to be doing well lately. He was saving money to get his own apartment, and one of his last Facebook posts Feb. 4 conveyed a young man's excitement for the future.
"Signed the lease and moving out," he wrote. "Big things are happening my friends. Marvelous things will happen."
On March 5, Spencer police received a report of a car driving erratically and plowing into snowbanks. Officers found Cody slumped behind the wheel in the parking lot of his new apartment at Townhouse Court. He was arrested and charged with possession of a Class A substance.
The next day he appeared before Judge Allard-Madaus in East Brookfield District Court and vowed to get help. Just a couple of hours later, one of his friends called police from Cody's apartment to say he was unresponsive and needed Narcan, an opiate antidote. He was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent Hospital, where he was administered the life-saving drug. Meanwhile, after receiving word of the incident, Allard-Madaus issued an arrest warrant in an effort to get him off the street.
That same evening, incredibly, Cody appeared at his parents' house and proudly introduced his new girlfriend.
"He seemed happy, healthy and excited," recalled his mother, Kimberly. They chatted for a awhile, then Cody hugged his parents, told them he loved them and left.
He and his dad spoke nearly every day. When Cody didn't answer the phone Saturday and Sunday, his father drove to the apartment. There, he found his only son dead on the living room couch.
"Words can't describe our pain," Christopher Hider said. "But it's nothing compared to the pain he was going through. No one wants to be a drug addict. So many other families we know have children struggling with the same thing. It's an epidemic right now. We made a conscious decision that we weren't going to hide from it. The reality is, someone died yesterday and someone is going to die today."
Allard-Madaus was called on Sunday by a court officer and notified that the earnest young man he tried to help two days earlier had died. Badly shaken, he was seized by guilt even though he realizes there was nothing else he could have done.
"It's an incredible feeling of powerlessness,'" he said. "We have no mechanism to identify who's going to keep using. Nothing would indicate this kid had a heroin problem. The new opiate addict is virtually undetectable, until he dies... We're all frustrated by this and we want people to know what we're up against."
The statistics are grim. In 2013, 978 people died in Massachusetts because of opiates. In Worcester County alone, 29 people suffered fatal overdoses since January. Investigators see younger victims every day, kids like Cody who have their whole lives ahead of them.
Today, his parents hope Cody's story will spare even one family their anguish and heartbreak.
"He was a beautiful, beautiful kid," his father said. "He had everything in the world going for him. We need to break this spider web. There are parents out there who have no idea ... Talk to your kids. Just talk to your kids."
Contact Dianne Williamson at dwilliamson@telegram.com
This is not the other towns problem as we may want to think. It's here and we also have lost many more than we should have.
ReplyDeleteAs we watch our children grow and become independent we must all stay open minded and keep an eye on them as they are all more every day closer to a tragic end like this. It's the ones with the most to loose who have no clue they are hooked and can answer everyone with a no it not me i can quit anytime. They don't know the truth how can they tell it.
The fact is very few kick it when the time comes after rehab they go back as the draw ti it is to strong for them.
We have no ability to teach what they don't believe the truth to be. Parents need to fight their children to fight for them.
They are hooked in a spiral to the end and take us unknowingly with them in the end. For a parent to lose a child is the worst. To lose them in this manner i can't imagine.