A heartbreaking story of the Russell family, after aspiring figure skater and top student died from an overdose just before New Year’s Eve.
Before khloe’s family there was another kannada family grieving the loss of a child eighteen-year-old teslin russell was found dead in her family’s home on december 30th the family has stayed very private until now sharing their story with ctv’s katherine latham today kathy well that’s very bob and riley russell thought they would stay silent until they knew
Exactly how their daughter died they’ve been waiting on toxicology results but that may still be another month and bob russell today saying they can’t hold their silence any more he spoke to us via skype from a business trip in california because he said staying silent he fears more people could be hurt and so he’s hoping their story might save lives it takes just
A glance to see the beauty and sparkle in teslin russell’s eyes but inside she was uh she was loved like so many people she had a heart of gold just 18 years old she loved people and animals a zest for life a fierce competitor figure skating since she was six years old it was really all of those you know skating school and friends was was her lifestyle and when
She graduated holy trinity high school in canada with an 80% average off to college for nursing her parents riley and bob russell couldn’t be more proud of the young woman their daughter was becoming it’s always challenging when you raise kids i think you know they get through high school graduating you think to look at all anyways we got through high school and
We had greek graduation and we’re off to a new chapter in life which was getting to ecology life was as it should be or so they thought it was her little secret again when agreed on december 30th after a normal night at home teslin secret was tragically revealed you know i was shocked i couldn’t understand why she was dead there was no trauma there was no her body
She was she it’s like she kneeled down with her sleep and it didn’t make any sense to me at all senseless because she went from being perfectly healthy she found dead on the family’s bathroom floor we’ve kind of been there saying goodbye to her and i picked up the person i have opened it and i said the peace officer was standing right there instead what are these
They were pills police would later confirmed to be counterfeit percocet a painkiller laced with fentanyl a deadly concoction a few days later i can’t remember what the date was we were talking to one of her closest friends she indicated that she was taking for consent he’s not sure how often but he’s since found out heslin had been taking the drugs for up to six
Months going public to share the family story hasn’t been easy but necessary we’re not going to get that exact word we may not even find out where she ever got these from and what we want to the key is we want to make sure it doesn’t keep happening even looking back bob says there were no signs even teslin sister melody her very best friend had no idea but the pain
They feel now is far too real we were family of five now her family of four is a big gaping hole in the family and everything we do is one missing and we certainly thank the russell family for speaking with us we know wasn’t easy and there’s so much more to their story so we’ve posted bob’s entire interview it’s about 28 minutes long but we think it’s something
Everyone should hear you’ll find that on our website graham just an average ottawa family one ordinary story ctv’s catherine latham reporting live thank you
Transcribed from video
Ottawa family shares story of teen's overdose death By CTV News
