Florida Letters for First Lady Casey DeSantis

Dear First Lady Casey DeSantis,
My name is Corrine DeJarnette and I am a member of the Drug Epidemic Memorial Wall
campaign. Our goal is to put up a Memorial Wall in all 50 State Capitol complexes to honor our
lost loved ones and continue to provide a voice for them. We are all victims of this national drug
epidemic. Our nation is better than this, and we need to continue to shed light on this national
drug crisis. To successfully do this, we need your help. Will you help us to let the nation know
that WE, as Floridians, will do all we can to stop these senseless deaths?
My daughter was a warm and loving person, younger sister to her brother, aunt to 3, and best
friend to me and her fiancé. She had a happy, addictive laugh that would have everyone in the
room laughing with her sense of humor.
Kaitlin Elizabeth DeJarnette was born 9/21/1995, my youngest child of 2 and my only girl. Kaitlin
loved her family and her friends and any kind of animal. She would do anything she could to help
anyone/anything in need. Katie will forever be 26 years old. She struggled with addiction to
opioids, specifically heroin, in the beginning, for 6 years after hanging with “the wrong crowd”.
She had several stays in private and County run rehabs and did better and better each time at
working her Recovery Program. She was finding full-time employment, paying her debts, and
wanting to be a productive member of society. She even talked about becoming an addiction
counselor after her probation was done and she could get back into college. She was known in
the rehabs she did attend as someone to always be there for the newer house members; to
show them the ropes and help them find their way, was honest with them when they made a
wrong choice and was looked up to by her peers in recovery.
Her struggle caused her so much unhappiness, but I know she did not want to die. The disease
of addiction has no cure, it is a lifelong struggle for those caught in its web with someone always
around in her time of weakness to sell her the relief she craved: freedom from the horrible illness
and emotional pain she suffered from. Her need for relief was always around the corner, a
person ready to steal her life to make money and with no regard for human life.
In the early morning of March 17, 2022, I received a phone call from Kaitlin’s fiancé crying and
yelling “she’s blue Ma, you have to come now, the Sherriff’s are here”. It was my worst fear come
true; my beautiful baby girl was gone from an accidental overdose of fentanyl! I refuse to have
her become another “statistic” in this horrible epidemic. I will be an advocate in this fight and an
ally to those struggling in similar situations. This is why I ask that you help all of us honor our
loved ones. Kaitlin forever 26.
Sincerely and with Warm Regards,
Corrine DeJarnette
Port Richey, FL