Inside Mom’s Heartbreak After 19-Year-Old Son Dies of Apparent Fentanyl Overdose: 'He Was Just a Baby'

Six months after warning her son Matthew about drugs, Joanie Sullivan learned that her eldest child was dead

In December, Joanie Sullivan sat her son down and begged him not to do drugs. The Northern Virginia mother knew her teenager was vaping and smoking marijuana – but she had read articles about the increase in teens dying after using fentanyl and she was worried.

Six months later, on June 13, her 19-year-old son Matthew was found dead of an apparent fentanyl overdose, she tells PEOPLE.

“My heart is so broken. He was a good kid," says Sullivan, who hopes to save lives by sharing her son's story.

“I hope it’s an eye-opener,” adds the 38-year-old phlebotomist from Ashburn, Va. “This can happen: You can try one thing and you can die.”

Related: Mom's Heartbreaking Billboard Warns 'Fentanyl Kills' After Daughter's Death: '1 Pill That's All It Took'

Fatal overdoses of the highly potent opiate have surged in recent years, while deaths in children — primarily among teens between the ages of 15-19 — have significantly increased, according to CNN. In the past two decades, more than 5,000 children and teens have died from fentanyl overdoses, according to data published last Month in JAMA Pediatrics.

“Fentanyl is killing kids,” Sullivan says. “They think it’s fun and it’s cool, without ever realizing a little pill could actually kill you.”

Sullivan was 19 when she gave birth to her eldest son, Mathew Harvey. “He was a happy baby,” she remembers.

Right before Christmas, Sullivan remembers giving her son a hug and sitting him down to talk about drugs.

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She worried because of her own past addiction history. She became addicted to prescription pain medication when she was 21, and then turned to methamphetamines. She went to rehab when she was 31 and has been clean ever since.

“I always had a fear as my kids got older,” says the single mother, who has three other boys, 9, 15, and 16. “I know kids – because that was me."

She urged her teen not to do drugs. "I tried to explain to him: Things are different. Drugs are not what they were years ago… I told all my kids: You can’t do drugs, they’re not what you think they are, because pretty much everything is laced with something.”

She remembers her son telling her, "I won't, mom" — and she believed him.

“He never seemed high,” she says. “And I’ve done drugs before. He was very there."

Related: How Fentanyl Became One of the Biggest Causes of Drug Overdoses in the U.S.

This summer, they made plans for Matthew, who was living with roommates in Nebraska, to visit his mom and younger half-brothers in Virginia.

But on Tuesday June 13, Sullivan got a message from her mother, who thought something might be wrong with Matthew because his paternal grandparents left a note on her front door asking her to call.

Frantic, Sullivan called her mother over and over again. When she finally reached her mother, she learned her son was dead.

“I was crying and screaming,” Sullivan says. “He was just a baby.”

Sullivan says that a detective told her that her son's roommates found him on the kitchen floor at 10:43 a.m. that morning and that "they found two blue pills on him that tested positive for fentanyl."

The Bellevue Police Department’s public information officer, Lieutenant Howard Banks, confirmed to PEOPLE that officers did speak to Sullivan and that on Tuesday June 13, 2023 at approximately 10:53 a.m. officers were dispatched after 19-year-old Matthew Harvey was found laying unresponsive on the kitchen floor. Due to the "ongoing investigation" they could not release any additional details.

A toxicology report, which could take another six to eight weeks, is still pending. A GoFundMe page has also been established to help the family pay for funeral costs.

Speaking to PEOPLE as she drove 18 hours from Virginia to Nebraska to say goodbye to her son, Sullivan says she hopes "other kids realize how dangerous fentanyl really is."

“I would say to other kids: Don’t try drugs. Even if they think it’s cool," she says. "Because all it takes is a little piece of something you may never wake up – and then it leaves an entire family devastated.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

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