Jake Beddoe
Age: 25 | State: | County: Fairfield | Case Status: No Investigation
Seeking a good night’s sleep, 25-year-old Jake Beddoe, a young travel consultant with an adventurous heart and a tremendous sense of humor, took part of what he thought was a Xanax pill on May 27, 2020. The pill was counterfeit, and Jake died of fentanyl poisoning.
Jake was part of a close-knit family with four siblings in Trumbull, Connecticut. His mother Niki says he was the family’s jokester. According to his older sister, Carly, he gave hilarious gifts: Hulk hands, a sequined pillow with Nicolas Cage’s face, and, for his father Wally’s birthday, a tennis racket bug zapper that led Jake to run around zapping everyone, his antics causing tremendous laughter amongst the family as usual.
After graduating from college with a philosophy degree and an art minor that reflected his passion for illustration, Jake joined the Peace Corps, serving in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Upon his return, he threw himself into work as a travel consultant in Boston, planning international trips for small groups. When the pandemic happened, Jake, Carly and younger brother Kirk moved back home to quarantine with their parents and youngest sister, Amy. They made the best of it by enjoying movie nights, family dinners and cocktail hours. “It was special,” Carly told us, “to have that time, especially since we all lived in different cities and rarely got the opportunity to spend such quality time together.”
Still, it was stressful. The worldwide pandemic added a great deal of turmoil to the travel industry, and Jake continued to work long hours from his parents’ basement during this very uncertain time. His mom checked in with him about work and COVID-19-related anxiety, but Jake assured her that he would be fine.
On May 26th, Jake fell asleep early after a long workday and missed dinner. When Niki heard him in the kitchen around midnight, she joined him. They talked and laughed until he headed back to his room to watch “Mad Max.” The next morning brought beautiful May weather and as the rest of the family sat outside enjoying coffee, they noted that Jake was sleeping in longer than usual. By 10:30 a.m. Niki decided to check on her son, and found that he wasn’t breathing. Jake’s brother Kirk called 911, and Wally, who is a volunteer firefighter, began CPR, but it was too late. Paramedics pronounced Jake dead around 11:30 a.m.
The Beddoes discovered shortly after his death that Jake had purchased Xanax from a long-time acquaintance. It was not until July that the family learned from the autopsy report that he died from fentanyl toxicity. Armed with that knowledge, Niki found a small stash of Xanax hidden in a toy bongo drum on his bedroom shelf.
Like many victims before him, Jake had broken what he believed were Xanax bars into three and four pieces to make sure he was taking small doses, unaware that there is no such thing as a safe dose when it comes to pills you buy on the street.
The Beddoes are devastated by Jake’s death. His college-age siblings knew about counterfeit prescription pills, but Wally and Niki Beddoe were entirely unaware of them. As a family they want to do everything possible to spare others this pain. “I’ve told our story to everyone I can,” Carly told us. “I see casual drug use every where—at parties, passed between friends. No one thinks twice. We all think we’re invincible, but it can happen to anyone just as it happened to my brother. I don’t want this epidemic to take anyone else I love.”
The Bridgeport CT prosecutor refused to prosecute the drug dealer even though there was proof on Jake’s phone that he sold the deadly pills to Jake just one week before. Unfortunately, the DA did not move forward with the case and Jake’s family has had to live with the fact that the man who killed their loved one continues to roam the streets and more than likely is still dealing these deadly drugs.