More than four years after their daughter's overdose death, two Massachusetts parents continue to grieve as they press for changes in how drug dealers are prosecuted.
"Are you alive? Please call me, I'm worried sick about you," Nancy Fusaro frantically texted her daughter, Nicole, not hearing from her for a few days.
Her heart sank every time she hit send. Nancy Fusaro and her husband, Nick, were always in constant communication with Nicole, texting every morning and every night, but on the night of Nov. 14, 2019, Nicole's phone went silent.
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"We knew it wasn't good," said Nick Fusaro.
The 24-year-old Suffolk University graduate student excelled at sports and loved to travel. She dreamed of opening her own business, but on Nov. 17, those dreams came to a tragic end when she overdosed inside the Natick apartment of Rafael Ashworth on Morse Street — just yards away from the police station.
An autopsy showed she died of acute toxicity due to a combination of fentanyl and other drugs.
"We didn't have a kid that was on drugs," Nick Fusaro said.
Ashworth, who had been dating Nicole Fusaro for a few weeks, texted her a video where he can be seen smiling while cranking a pill press and making bars of counterfeit Xanax. Thousands of pills can be seen on another video. Evidence photos from inside his apartment show mounds of drugs and a stash of fentanyl that investigators say was found in his nightstand.
Evidence showed on Nov. 13, Ashworth texted Fusaro, "I have to go to Boston anyway to make a play to tiger tomorrow so we can get a little lit for thirsty Thursday." In another text she asked him for "zans."
Ashworth picked Fusaro up at her condo in Boston the next night, evidence showed.
Days after Fusaro's parents reported her missing, police showed up to do a wellness check at Ashworth's apartment. They say Ashworth told them he hadn't seen her for two weeks. Two hours later, a friend stopped by the apartment and found Fusaro's lifeless body on Ashworth's bed. He walked across the street to tell police someone had overdosed.
According to court records, when police came back to the apartment, Ashworth was incoherent and unable to walk. They found Fusaro in the bed, where she had been dead for days.
Prosecutors say Ashworth even used her credit card during that time.
"What was he going to do with her body? Was he going to cut it up? Was he going to burn it? For four years, those were the questions that kept me up at night," said Nancy Fusaro. "How can someone have a body there? The police station is right across the street."
"Never cried out for any help even, didn't even call 911," added Nick Fusaro.
Four years after Nicole Fusaro's death, a federal jury convicted Ashworth of possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute, but didn't find that he provided her the deadly dose that killed her.
Brian Boyle, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in New England, says the feds are targeting more dealers in death-by-distribution cases, but proving that the dealer is responsible is difficult.
"I think the biggest challenge is we have to obtain the evidence and you need to show the proof that that individual died as a result of that fentanyl that was supplied on the scene," said Boyle.
The cases are challenging at the federal and state level. Our investigation last fall into overdose death prosecutions in Massachusetts found some alleged dealers have been charged with manslaughter at the state level, but in many counties, overdose death cases aren't fully investigated or prosecuted — something the Fusaro family would like to change.
Nancy Fusaro said prosecuting the dealers tells families that someone cares about their loved one's death.
"Something has to be done, people are dying every day," she said.
"It's the worst thing that can happen to you, believe me," said Nick Fusaro.
Ashworth faces from five to 40 years in prison. His lawyer says he accepts responsibility for the drug charges, but didn't have anything to do with Fusaro's death.
