DRUG OVERDOSE

Family, Friends Mourn Teenager

BRADENTON - Forming a circle in the living room of her grandparents' home,
friends and family members of Amberly Dana Gray remembered and mourned the
17-year-old Friday night.

For more than an hour, they celebrated the teen's headstrong personality,
her caring nature, her early days at Bayshore High School, her aspirations
to someday help others and the way she always told others to stay away from
drugs.

But Amberly never heeded her own advice. She died Wednesday night at a St.
Petersburg hospital after spending 24 days in a comatose state induced by a
cocaine overdose, family members said.

Since her death, Bob and Nancy Montgomery's west Bradenton home has served
as a gathering point for friends and relatives to remember the couple's
granddaughter.

"It's been a rollercoaster ride the past two days," Bob Montgomery said.
"You always look back - coulda, shoulda, woulda."

Amberly was admitted to the hospital the morning of Sept. 13 after friends
could not wake her at a residence in Largo.

Authorities are trying to determine whether a lethal batch of cocaine
caused Amberly to lapse into a comatose state. They are also trying to
determine who the teen obtained the drugs from, according to Largo Police
Detective Joe Coyle.

"Right now, the person who can say where they got the drugs is dead," Coyle
told the Herald on Friday afternoon. "The case is still open."

Reports on the cause and the manner of death are pending until January,
according to an employee with the District 6 Medical Examiner's Office in
Pinellas County.

Amberly, who worked at the Fountain Court Cafe in west Bradenton, drove to
Clearwater on Sept. 11, where she stayed with a friend. The next day,
Amberly wouldn't wake up.

"She was unresponsive," Coyle said, and was transported to the hospital.

Because the case remains under investigation, an incident report from the
Largo Police Department was not readily available Friday.

"Amberly was a really loving person," said Tommy Smith, 22, who grew up
with Amberly. "She'd see a person sitting by themselves and she'd make it a
point to sit and talk to them.

"I still expect to see her walk out to the driveway," Tommy continued. "I
tried to help her so much - I tried so hard to help her."

At Bayshore High, students learned of Amberly's death when an announcement
was made over the school's intercom Friday morning, according to Amberly's
friend, Jessica Simpson, 16.

"No one knew she was in the hospital," Simpson said.

Bob Montgomery said tough love just wasn't effective in trying to break
Amberly away from the downspiral her life took.

"She was fighting the demon," he said.

Some didn't question the teens' decisions.

"I think she just wanted to get away," said friend Katherine Mullins, 18.

The teens and Amberly's family members discussed the growing problem drugs
have created among youths. They questioned whether law enforcement's
approach at tackling the growing problem and the drug problem in their west
Bradenton neighborhood was effective.

"When are they going to do something?" Amberly's friend Matthew Greene, 17,
asked the group. "Drugs are a big problem - how many friends do we have to
watch die?"