GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Frederica Roberson will never forget her son’s contagious smile or the morning she found him unresponsive in his bedroom.
Marquavies Broughton, 21, had been clean for two months when he relapsed April 1. The day before his death, he called 18 treatment centers desperately seeking help, his mother told Channel 2 Gwinnett Bureau Chief Matt Johnson.
“It was one place that he called that was in Acworth, Georgia, and said, if you can get here by five o’clock, we can do your intake,” Roberson said. “We couldn’t get there from Lawrenceville.”
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Insurance wouldn’t cover the facilities that had openings. That night, pills laced with fentanyl arrived via Uber courier, police would later tell her.
“He took his last breath in my arms,” Roberson said. “He looked at me, he turned his head and a tear rolled out, and then that was his last breath.”
Roberson says her son thought he was buying Percocet, not fentanyl.
Two women now face murder charges for allegedly supplying those deadly pills. Tamia Lee Humes and Vicki Briane Anderson were indicted June 25 on felony murder and aggravated involuntary manslaughter.
Roberson supports Gwinnett County’s aggressive prosecution and arrest strategy against alleged fentanyl dealers.
“People will start to realize Gwinnett’s not playing and you can’t do it,” she said.
Roberson has turned her pain into purpose, launching the Marquavies Bernard Broughton Foundation to help other families find treatment resources her son couldn’t access.
“I don’t want anybody to feel the pain that I felt, the pain that I’m still feeling,” she said. “My slogan on the foundation is ‘Saving one life at a time.’”
The foundation sells wristbands with the message, “Their story doesn’t end. We stop telling it,” to raise funds for their mission.
Despite her grief, Roberson remains determined to help others.
“I have my ups and downs, and I tell you the strength that I have right now is nothing but God,” she said.
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