WEST PALM BEACH — In the year since Travis Fletcher died of a fentanyl overdose at the Palm Beach County Jail, investigators with the sheriff's officehave interviewed men who slept in the same dormitory,corrections deputies who worked the area where he was being held, medical staff andfamily members.
Investigators know he was being treated for withdrawal symptoms for alcohol. Fletcher'sbunkmates said he had been sick recently. Andone conversation during a monitored telephone call revealed that those in the jail knew he had died of an overdose before a toxicology report came back in the months after his death.
But what investigators still don't know is how the deadly narcotic made its way into the jail and to a 29-year-old fatherwho died from its effectsin the hours before his lawyer was scheduled to request bond in his pending aggravated assault case.
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Afinal sheriff's office report,newlyobtained by The Palm Beach Post, details the investigation into Fletcher's death in 2020 but concludes with more questions than answers forFletcher's family.
On Thursday, the sheriff's office confirmed no deputies ever were put on administrative leave or under investigation for Fletcher's death. In January, the State Attorney's Office said it would not seek charges in the case. It's unclear from the report whom they were considering for potential charges.
Kathleen Fletcher McIntyre, Fletcher's mother, wants someone to be held responsible.
"Why aren’t they accountable for what happened to my boy? How do they think we feel about this?" she told The Post last week.
Fentanyl overdose took place in the main detention center
On March 30, 2020, a corrections deputy said he walked into the dormtypically reserved for new arrivals in the main detention center, offGun Club Road in suburban West Palm Beach, at about 3a.m. Fletcher reportedly asked what time he had court and went back to bed.
The same deputy returned soon after with breakfast. By 4:20a.m., he noticed Fletcher hadn't grabbed his meal, so he checked thebunk and Fletcher had no pulse.
Some people watching reported that Fletcher had convulsions as the nurses worked on him and attempted CPR. Another witness told investigators Fletcher had a black substance coming from his mouth. There is no surveillance-camera video in that part of the dorm, according to the report.
The Loxahatchee-areaman was taken to Wellington Regional Medical Center by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. Medical personnel were unable to revive him.
Meanwhile, in the downtown courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fletcher'smother and lawyer were told by a deputy that herefused to come to court that morning for a bond hearing in his assault case.McIntyre said that didn't make sense. She had spoken with him the night before and told him she was getting him out.
She later learned he had been dead for hours.
"I just don’t understand it.Inmates should not die,"McIntyresaid. "When you’re arrested, you’re not guilty."
Investigators asked for who supplied the drugs and got no answers
In the weeks before the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Officeruled that Fletcher died of a fentanyl overdose,Detective Deborah Botella intervieweddozens of people involved, according to the sheriff's officereport.
Many said Fletcherwas a smart guy who kept to himself. Deputies said he gave them no issues and even helped withcleaning and collecting food trays after meals. On the night before he died, several of the men he shared the dorm with said he had been on the phone crying before bed.
Nurses said he was on a medical regimento help with alcohol-withdrawal symptoms.
Once the medical examiner's report and toxicology screening were completed in June2020, Botella went back to those involved with more questions.
How did a man who had been in jail for less than a week get hold of a deadly narcotic?
The medical examiner's report pointed to puncture wounds in Fletcher's arms when he was examined.
Tiffany Malvita, Fletcher's longtime girlfriend and the mother of their son, who was 4 at the time, previously told The Post that Fletcher only drank alcohol and didn't like needles.
He loved motorcycles and dirt bikes and showing them off to his son, Travis Reed Fletcher.
"That's not the guy I know, so I don't know what's going on," she told The Post last year.
She didn't understand why, if no needle was found and Fletcher never used intravenous drugs, law enforcementwould assume that's how the drugs entered his system.
Investigators later determined the puncture marks in his arms were from the medical staff while on the way to the hospital.
A bunkmate of Fletcher's claimed hesaw the 29-year-old snort something before he died. Another said Fletcher constantly was throwing up, so he assumed he was some kind of drug addict.
Another manwho was in the same dorm admitted to cominginto the jail with a fewPercocet pills, which contain the opioid oxycodone. He said he took them for pain from an old gunshot wound. He did not saywhether he gave any to Fletcher.
The Post is not naming any of the men interviewed because they are not charged in Fletcher's death.
One interview after the next, each person told investigatorsthey had no idea where Fletcher could have obtained the fatal opioid.
Police do not know where drugs came from that killed Fletcher
In January, Botella, the lead detective, receiveda close-out letter from the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office saying it would not go forward with charges in the case, matching the medical examiner's ruling that the death was accidental.
If they had sought charges, someone could have been charged with homicide in Fletcher's overdose death.
In 2018, Florida's homicide statute was revised to include fentanyl and carfentanil, among other substances, which allowsprosecutors to charge alleged dealers with homicide if someone overdosed using the drugs they sold.
McIntyre said her son should have never died inside jail. Though investigators have yet to provide answers, she believes there are two possible reasonsher son is not here today:
Either procedures weren't followed and someone who was booked into the jail was able to smuggle in fentanyl,or it may have been a corrections deputywho supplied her son with the drugs.
"Something was missed here," she said.
In recent months, three corrections deputies, along with several people being held in main jail and those helping from the outside,have been arrested for their alleged connection to smuggling large amounts of drugs into the jail.
In arrest reports, investigators say they were aware as early as June 2020 of"extremely active" levels of narcotics making their way into the jail, some via pizza boxes.
The sheriff's office said that investigation and the subsequent arrests are not connected to Fletcher's death. None of the corrections deputies who were arrested are mentioned in the 51-page report.
McIntyre said she may never have the answers, but she'll keep writing letters and questioning.
"I have no intention of ever letting go," she said. "They took his rights and when you take somebody’s rights and everything they can and can’t have on their persons, you’re accountable."
hwinston@pbpost.com
@hannahwinston
