SEMMES, Ala. ( WKRG ) — One pill is all it took to kill 18-year-old Jayce Ward in August, and his family’s world has been turned upside down ever since.
Ward was found dead on Aug. 6 from a suspected fentanyl overdose. Ashley Rowell, Ward’s aunt, suspected her nephew thought that he was taking a Percocet the day prior.
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“I was at work when the call came through dispatch, and I could hear the dispatcher receiving information from 911,” Rowell, who works in law enforcement, said.
That call to dispatch leaked a dark feeling into Rowell’s conscious that something bad had happened, but she didn’t know what. Rowell said she went to the locker room to pray.
“When I got up to leave the locker room, I just had this feeling come over me, and I can’t explain it. I can’t describe it, but I just knew,” Rowell said. “And it was confirmed at that time that it was Jayce.”
Jayce was the oldest of five siblings and had just graduated from Mary G. Montgomery High School in May. Rowell said Jayce had planned to join the Army in the fall and was in the recruiting process.