Trinity Corjeno was going places. She was a softball star at Troy High School in Fullerton, California. She was 17, looking to a future dotted with bright, indefinite dreams of helping those in need.
Those dreams will never be.
On Oct. 1, after coming home from a gathering of friends the night before, Trinity died, with her family being told by first responders and doctors that she was another victim of fentanyl, according to KCBS-TV.
Chrisa Corjeno, Trinity’s mother, said there was no inkling that tragedy was looming on the night Trinity came home for the last time.
“She did her skincare routine,” Cornejo told the news outlet. “She went and got an ice cream sandwich. My sister went to the restroom, came back and found her unresponsive.”
Trinity Cornejo had the world ahead of her. My heart is with her mother Chrisa, her loved ones & our Troy High School community.
Fentanyl is deadly & keeps taking innocent lives.https://t.co/fYaGnmdv6N
— Young Kim (@RepYoungKim) October 11, 2022
Cornejo rushed home from work to find first responders waging an uphill battle against the poison in her daughter’s body.
“Their speculation was an accidental fentanyl overdose because of the evidence so far they had collected from my sister,” Cornejo told KCBS. “Her heart stopped beating at 8:23 a.m. on Oct. 1.”
Do we need to do more at the border to stop fentanyl from entering the U.S.?
Cornejo said that although softball was a huge part of her daughter’s life, she was more than a star on the field.
‘She was a great athlete, but I was proud of her heart,’ Cornejo said, indicating her daughter wanted to be a therapist or police officer or follow some other career where she could help people.
Cornejo said she is speaking out to warn parents.
“This is happening in our community right now and it’s not just happening to troubled youth and addicts,” Cornejo said. “It’s happening to good kids, honor students.”
Cornejo thought she had done her job in making Trinity aware of what was going on around her.
“I would send her your articles about these issues, and these deaths, and I thought she understood and I thought she would never take that risk, but teenagers are curious and dealing with a lot of pressure,” Cornejo said, according to KABC-TV.
Cornejo said dealers float under the radar of adults on social media.
“These dealers deliver substances of the teen’s choice. They come in masks when they come in their cars,” Cornejo said. “They either know what they’re doing and don’t want to get caught, or don’t know what they’re doing and don’t care. Either way, it’s just drugs are no longer drugs. What you think you’re getting is most likely laced with something else.”
Cornejo also had a message for the dealers whose products led to her daughter’s death.
“Whoever is out there pushing this poison on our kids, you’re a coward and I hope justice finds you,” she said, according to KTLA-TV.
