Trashed: The death of Michael York and how heroin has invaded the Chicago suburbs
Nearly two years ago, the body of Michael York turned up in an alley on the West Side. The high-school student had died of an apparent overdose after a weekend bacchanal at a St. Charles mansion, and his friends had dumped his corpse in the neighborhood where they bought drugs. Three young people have now been charged in a case that painfully illustrates how heroin has invaded the suburbs
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SCENE OF THE CRIME: What chain of events could have led to the disposal of a suburban teenager’s body in this alley in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood? The police in the case were stumped.
The glow of the streetlight shone dully in the frigid darkness, casting an amber pall on the alley that ran like a scar between two rows of clapboard and brick flophouses on the western border of North Lawndale. It was a little after 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 16, 2007, nine days before Christmas, and the trash-strewn, rutted path of concrete, walled off from the Eisenhower freeway by the squat homes along Lexington, lay robed in white from a snowstorm the night before.
Had it not been for that pale backdrop, the man might not have noticed the long, black object at the foot of the dumpster next to his garage: It was the body of a man, a young man—a teenager even—lying face-down and dressed in a black sweater, black pants, and a hooded sweatshirt. The corpse wore no shoes. From the looks of the limbs, the body had been there for at least a few hours. The legs stretched stiff and frozen. The arms locked slightly at the elbows. The hands were gnarled claws, perched on the hard snow. To the man, the body looked as if it were doing a pushup.
Someone called the police, and soon the alley crawled with officers. The man was struck by how long they took to investigate. He guessed it must have been two hours before they finally gave the go-ahead for the body to be hauled away. He couldn’t say he was surprised at the official diligence. He had known this was no ordinary case the second he saw the dead boy, or rather, the second he saw the color of the boy’s skin. Dead junkies were nothing unusual in this neighborhood, but young white ones were. The body in the alley had come from somewhere else. But where? the man wondered. Who was this kid, and how did he wind up face-down and frozen, doing a dead-man’s pushup in a back alley where even residents feared to tread?
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Photograph by Taylor Castle
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My Heart is hurting because I have lived and worked in this community all my life and I'm 47. I just heard of this because of your article in Chicago Magazine Bryan, because my business receives Chicago magazine and a client told me of this horrific thing that happened 11 years ago. Dear Bryan, I just can't help but feel sorrow for everyone involved. Thanks Patti Hodge Samuelson
This is such a sad story. I feel for these young adults who have had everything handed to them and became addicts. I used to be there as well. I got sober in 2002 with the help of retired Judge Doyle's drug court program through kane county. I have been clean and sober ever since. These young adults need a strong support system and rehab, rehab, reahab! I pray that these people don't go to jail and come out of the system much worse.
Bryan, as a mother of a 21yr old. boy who has been struggling with a heroin addiction here in Lake Zurich, I just want to thank you so much for shedding light on the truth of Heroin. It is a poison that destroys the minds of our children and turns them into something that they weren't before they started. I am currently trying to wake up my town to the realization that we have a Heroin problem here. We have had three kids die in the last year. There has been seven since June 2009 within a 30 ml radius. The towns of Arlington Hts (August) Glenview(September)Lakemoor(Sept.) Algonquin(Oct.) Barrington(Oct.) and I'm sure these aren't all. These are all kids from 18yrs old to 22 yrs old! This has got to stop!!!!!!!!! Plz continue to report on this issue until people understand and cry out for action. The govt. is currently taking away what funds there are for public awareness and education and also rehabilitation. How are we going to stop the madness? Thank you for a very enlightening article I am sharing it with many.
You kids are fools. Millions of things to do in this world, and you decide to throw it all away and use heroin? For fun? For a few hours of pleasure and a lifetime of cost.
My son also died in connection with drug use at the very young age of 18. I am very sorry that he could not clearly see the dangers. At 18 was was petrified at the thought of using drugs.
What is even more shocking is that Evan Wan, a kid in our community, was named as the kid that supplied drugs, and he was never even questioned by police! Evan Wan merely had his hand slapped and was expelled from University of Notre Dame...and that was that. Pass the problem onto someone else.
Until people take the distribution of drugs seriously, the use will continue. Until communities, schools and police departments treat drug use as a cancer and not a cold, it will continue.
Shame on the Barrington and South Barrington police departments for not scaring the hell out of kids caught with drugs. Shame on District 220 for not making every single parent aware that HEROIN, LSD, etc are being traded in school parking lots! Shame on the Village manager of South Barrington for not even returning one email to discuss this issue.
Thank you Chicago Magazine for publishing this story and bringing light to this subject. Good kids get sucked into this lifestyle, and parents have no idea often until it is too late.
Peace,
Rick Kleinvehn