This story was originally published in April 2015. 

Stephanie Moyer didn't immediately notice the changes in her daughter's behavior last year.

Growing up, the fun-loving Victoria "Tori" Herr enjoyed hanging out with a group of other bright kids. She loved animals and was "artsy," with an eye for photography and a talent for writing, which one day she hoped might lead to a career in journalism, said her mother.

But about a year ago, near the end of Tori's senior year at Cedar Crest High School, Moyer saw a distinct change in her daughter. No longer carefree, she became morose and distant. Her old friends stopped hanging around, and her new ones were different.

"It took a while for me to catch on to that. You know, that all of a sudden I didn't know any of her friends," Stephanie Moyer recalled this week, sitting on the couch beside her husband and Tori's stepfather, Dean Moyer, in their North Cornwall Township home.

"They were not coming into the house," Moyer said. "They were not introducing themselves, and she was very upset when I'd take her to school. I drove her to school every single day. And there toward the end of her senior year she was just crying, and she wasn't looking the same. I tried to get answers from her friends that I did know, and nobody was really giving me any answers."

Frustrated and worried, Moyer did the only thing she could think of to find out what Tori was getting into -- she read her journal.

What Moyer learned in the pages of her daughter's diary was a parent's worst nightmare. Her teenage girl had become a heroin addict.



Details scant 

A Pennsylvania State Police investigation -- standard procedure in all death cases at the prison -- is underway, and the Moyer's have hired an attorney, preventing Lebanon County prison Warden Robert Karnes and other county officials from speaking directly about the case.




According to the only official report, submitted by Karnes at last week's county Prison Board meeting, Karnes went to the jail the night Herr lost consciousness "at approximately 10:15 p.m. due to a medical emergency involving an inmate. Upon initial questioning of staff, all operational protocols appeared to be followed. The PA State Police were notified of this incident and responded as per procedure."

The Moyers don't know much more about what happened to their daughter between the time she was incarcerated and hospitalized.

The Moyers are receiving information, including some from inmates released since their daughter's death, through a Facebook page called "Justice for Victoria 'Tori' Herr" that was started by a friend.



'Just want lemonade'


"I was like, 'Tori what happened?' and she said, 'I don't know, mom. But I'm seeing people die. I'm going to die,'" Moyer recalled. "And I said, 'Tori, you are not going to die, honey, you are just going through withdrawal. And she said, 'I'm so thirsty. I'm so thirsty. I just want lemonade. They won't give me lemonade. Can you put money on my account?'"

Moyer said she asked her daughter how to do that.

"She said, 'I've got to go,'" Moyer said. "And I said, 'Wait! How do I put money on your account?' And she said, 'I don't know, maybe go into the jail. I've got to go.' And that was the end of our conversation. It was the last time I talked to her."


But Stephanie Moyer was not convinced her daughter was fine.

"I had concerns, I know Tori mentally," she said. "I knew this would be a huge thing to bear mentally and physically. Her physical condition just wasn't that great. She was so thin and tiny. You know, just being an addict alone."


In a coma

"Everybody always says there are two options for an addict: they are either dead or in jail," Moyer said. "And she was in jail, so I honestly thought she was in the best place. I mean the best place with the circumstances."



Moyer said she eventually was told her daughter had "a heart attack or something" and that she was at Lehigh Valley Hospital.


The Moyers rushed to Lehigh Valley Hospital to be by their daughter's bedside. They found her unconscious and hooked to tubes.


"She was in a coma," Stephanie Moyer said. "She had brain swelling. Her brain had swelled. They said they (the prison medical staff) did CPR on her for 33 to 40 minutes until they called 9-1-1. That's what the doctor told us. So you do the math."

Stephanie Moyer said she has spoken to Karnes since her daughter's death, and he has been unable to shed any light on her treatment prior to her losing consciousness.

"Heroin in itself, you don't die from withdrawal of heroin, but you do die if you are not given liquids and certain things because you are dehydrating, because they vomit and they are going to the bathroom all of the time," Stephanie Moyer said. "So they have to have fluids. Whether or not she got those fluids, I would venture to say no, because she died. Unless there is another reason why she died."

Parents tried to help



"I'm not saying that Tori didn't make her own choices as well. I know that it was her choice to decide to use heroin. No one put a gun to her head and told her to do it," Stephanie Moyer said. "Most of her school life, she was in honors classes. She was extremely intelligent and never had a criminal run-in, ever. And when we had found out that she was using heroin about a year ago, we tried to help her immediately. Immediately we tried to talk to her and everything."

But Herr resisted, eventually moving in with her boyfriend.

The Moyers did not like their daughter's relationship with Roldan, whom she started dating in May, about the time they discovered she was using heroin.

"At first, I was not happy with her being with Jesse," Stephanie Moyer said. "I mean, that was part of the reason why she was hiding from me and everything, because she was with Jesse, and I knew he had a criminal background. I did not know he was a heroin addict or anything like that. But I knew he had a criminal background."


"Once we got to know Jesse, we had tried to help him. Especially Dean, when (Roldan) got out (of jail) the first time, through the church and stuff. But he wasn't interested," Stephanie Moyer recalled. "We very much saw potential in him. He seemed like he was a good guy with bad choices. But honestly, at this point in time, I don't know where I'd put him. I have issues to work out with him. But I can honestly say that he is the one person who could have truly helped her."

The Moyers said their daughter's love for Roldan caused her to claim the heroin was hers.

More than 200 people came to their daughter's funeral held at Calvary Chapel on April 11.

"Like the pastor said at her services, people's choices, the choices that we make, affect so many people," Stephanie Moyer said. "Her boyfriend Jesse had a bench warrant out for his arrest. ... (If) he had just went to court that day, none of this would have happened as far as her going to jail. She would be at U-Turn (for Christ, a residential drug treatment center) right now. And she'd be clean, and he'd be clean.

"So the choice that he made, he will have to live with the rest of his life. And certainly I am going to have to live with it the rest of my life. And all of Tori's friends and family will, too."

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