DAD LAMENTS NOT NOTICING CLUES

'If I Had Known ... I Could Have Stopped It'

Second Of Three Parts

Oct. 26, 2004.

With Halloween approaching, a family besieged by disease and money
worries suffered another setback.

Brenden Thayer, three months into his 10th-grade year at Vines High
School in Plano, was caught on campus with marijuana.

Six months later, at age 16, Brenden would die from an accidental
heroin overdose in his bedroom. His death supported the fear that
heroin is making a comeback among Plano teenagers after a decade of
relative quiet.

And Craig Thayer, while struggling with son Brenden's death, somehow
had to keep his family's tragic past from overwhelming its future.

"I know, logically, it was not mostly my fault," Mr. Thayer said.
"But if I had known he had the heroin or he was doing it in his
bedroom, I could have stopped it."

I don't think Brenden thought much about the future. He lived in the
present. I guess that explains his attitude about things and why he
really didn't try in school. - Sam Green, friend and classmate

Brenden spent a week at the county juvenile detention center in
McKinney after his arrest for marijuana possession. He agreed to be
evaluated and treated for alcohol and drug abuse.

By day, he attended an alternative school for problem kids. At night,
he participated in a rehab program. A judge put him on six months of
supervised probation and drug testing. He also attended Alcoholics
Anonymous meetings.

Brenden's journal, which he kept as part of his rehab program,
revealed a long list of regrets.

"Stealing money as well as alcohol from my parents. Lying to my
parents about what I was doing and where I was going. Spending
birthday money they gave me as gifts to contribute to my dealing.
Trying to get other people to use [drugs]. All I can do is say I'm
sorry and not be so ignorant," he wrote.

On New Year's Eve, the Thayers took Brenden to a party at the home of
some family friends. He and other teenagers found some liquor.

Mr. Thayer, angry and hurt, reported Brenden's relapse to the drug
rehab counselors, and they expelled him from the program.

"If I had known they would kick him out, I would have kept my mouth
shut," Mr. Thayer said. "Brenden liked the program. He was
disappointed. I ratted on him, and I felt really bad."

Even though he washed out of rehab, Brenden seemed to be
straightening out. He went to school, came home and did homework.

"He was starting to look for work and was getting more into his
music," Mr. Thayer said. "He took his bass guitar apart, sanded it
down and refinished it. He made his probation meetings and passed his
drug tests. He wasn't going out at all."

Although he was heartened about Brenden's progress, daughter Carissa
was another matter. At 14, she was becoming increasingly
strong-willed and headstrong.

Mr. Thayer was convinced that both kids were deeply troubled by an
assortment of family problems that began in 2000.

The children's mother, Carolle Thayer, suffers from Huntington's
disease, a fatal neurological disorder. Both children knew they could
inherit the disease.

On top of that, Mr. Thayer was laid off from his job as a computer
software engineer and in 2002 divorced his wife so she would qualify
for nursing home care under Medicaid.

"It was all more than I could handle," Mr. Thayer said.

Today, he acknowledges that he got caught up in his wife's medical
problems and his financial woes. Looking back, he sees that his
children didn't get the attention they needed.

At the time, they were making good grades in elementary school, and
other adults told Mr. Thayer they were well-behaved.

Carissa had a gleeful sense of humor. She liked the Whoopee Cushion.
And she enjoyed going fast on amusement park thrill rides.

Brenden was more restrained and easier to manage.

By the time their mother went to the nursing home, they had become
deeply troubled kids. Drugs loomed in their future.

In his journal - in a section titled "Fears" - Brenden revealed his
feelings: "Now I deal with the fear of possibly having Huntington's
disease, which my mother is faced with and is dying from."

Only later did Mr. Thayer realize just how panicked his children were
about their mother.

"It's overwhelming to me, and I'm an adult," Mr. Thayer said. "I
can't imagine being 12 or 14 years old and having to deal with it all."

Brenden was funny and spontaneous and a really loveable guy. I noticed
a change in his attitude when he started getting into drugs. It pushed
us away from each other for a while. I stopped talking to him. I was
concerned because heroin is such a heavy drug. Maybe I could have done
more to influence him without preaching. - Sam Green, friend and classmate

On May 10, 2005, Brenden was released from probation on the marijuana
charge. In the mood to celebrate, he got his dad's permission to go
out and play music at a friend's house.

"He got home about 8:15 and everything seemed fine," Mr. Thayer said.
"I looked him up and down. When he came in, he talked to me and then
went to his room."

The next morning, Brenden was dead. Paramedics who responded to the
911 call found heroin residue on a plate in his room. Later, the
medical examiner ruled that he died accidentally from "the toxic
effects of heroin."

At Brenden's memorial service, it struck Mr. Thayer that he had never
met or even seen most of the 200 teens in attendance.

As his eyes opened wider, he realized how little he knew about his
children and their friends. He found dozens of unfamiliar names and
phone numbers programmed into their cellphones.

"One of the biggest signs I missed was the number of friends he had
that I didn't know. People came to the house, and he wouldn't
introduce me to them. Or I would be busy doing something and they
would just go to his room."

Negative beliefs of self: How I got the mindset that everyone else
was retarded and corrupt and I was not - when it was really the other
way around. - Brenden's journal

On the last day of February, four defendants appeared in federal
court to accept responsibility for what the government called a
conspiracy to distribute the heroin that killed Brenden.

Brothers Angel and Alberto Sierra, dressed in bright orange jumpsuits
and shackled at the wrists and ankles, stood out among the dark wood
benches and railings in Judge Don D. Bush's courtroom in Sherman.

Angel, 29, and Alberto, 27, don't speak English. About two years ago,
they came to the U.S. illegally from Aguascalientes in Central Mexico.

They set up shop in a run-down apartment complex in northwest Dallas
and began dealing black tar heroin for $900 an ounce, according to
court records.

The brothers dealt dope in fast-food restaurant parking lots. Just
like in the movies, undercover narcotics agents began buying heroin
from them and videotaping the transactions with hidden cameras.

After Brenden died, Plano police Detective Courtney Pero began investigating.

Nathaniel Edward Gonzalez, a 20-year-old friend of Brenden and
Carissa, popped up on his radar screen. He was a regular customer of
the Sierra brothers.

As fate would have it, Mr. Gonzalez called Angel Sierra's cellphone
at the exact moment undercover officers were arresting the brothers
last summer in northwest Dallas.

An officer answered the phone, pretended to be a drug dealer and
agreed to deliver heroin to Mr. Gonzalez. Melanie Danielle Caple, 18,
drove her half brother, Mr. Gonzalez, to the meeting.

The Sierra brothers and Mr. Gonzalez have pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to distribute heroin in North Texas. Each faces a minimum
of 20 years in prison.

Ms. Caple, clad in a conservative gray pantsuit for her court
appearance, pleaded guilty to a lesser offense. Prosecutors allege
that she was present when her half brother sold heroin to Brenden on
May 10, the day before he was found dead.

Tearful and nervous, she acknowledged covering up Mr. Gonzalez's
activities and not reporting him to the authorities. She is hoping
for a probation sentence with no prison time.

"She's very lucky, as far as I can determine, that she is not going
away for a very, very long time," Judge Bush said.

Mr. Thayer says he doesn't want Ms. Caple to go to prison.

"I don't see how destroying another person's life is going to make
things better," he wrote to the judge.

The short story on heroin users is they want to escape reality.
Heroin is a sedative. I consider it a loner drug. When they take it,
they are just vegging. They feel pain, whether mental or physical.
They want to escape and not live in the real world. - Sgt. Terence
Holway, Plano Police Department narcotics division

Two weeks after Brenden's funeral, Mr. Thayer came home one evening
to find Carissa and a girlfriend passed out on a couch.

"I thought, 'Oh, my God! I've got another one.' She woke up but was
belligerent and couldn't walk. We called the police. Then, she tries
to run away and starts telling the cops stories that we were beating
her. She kept saying, 'I want to be with Brenden.' I didn't know if
it was a suicide attempt or not."

That night, Mr. Thayer said he found in Carissa's purse "a bunch" of
Xanax, a prescription tranquilizer popular among teens.

The family sent Carissa to inpatient and outpatient programs for
troubled teens. They took her out of Vines High School and put her in
a small private school, where her grades have improved.

"She has a softer side but she keeps it protected," Mr. Thayer said.
"She won't talk much."

Mr. Thayer tried to work out a "contract" with Carissa. It outlined
her responsibilities and the privileges she could win for fulfilling them.

It didn't work.

Carissa stole a blank check from her parents and wrote it for $130.
When they confronted her, she told them she needed the money to
replace a vase she had broken at a friend's house.

It wasn't true.

"We tried taking things away, like cellphones and computers, and
grounding her and all the things parents do to get their kids to
kowtow. But it would always be 'Boom.' Back to business as usual,"
Mr. Thayer said.

Several months ago, Carissa was arrested on shoplifting charges.
Police found a marijuana pipe in her purse. She was sentenced to
perform community service, and Mr. Thayer has made sure she fulfilled
that commitment.

She has been trouble-free in recent weeks and is about to complete
her sophomore year in high school.

"I just want her to get through school and be alive," he said. "I
hope the day comes when we can look back on this stuff and have a
chuckle. But I think that day is pretty far off."

My ignorance has led my sister down a path much like the path I was
on. - Brenden's journal