UPDATE May 2020 “I’m not looking for all kinds of heads to roll. I just want someone to say, we messed up, we’re responsible, this is how we’ve changed things.”
“four days after Walls entered the facility no one ever heard from him again. Wondering why he hadn’t called, his aunt visited the center on Dec. 9 to see him in person and was told he had packed all his stuff and left five days earlier, said Ketter-Walls. Surprised and worried, his family and friends began asking around town for him. Did he relapse and was hiding out? Did he overdose and die? They called morgues and hospitals. They checked local drug hangouts. They visited a Burger King he frequented and showed his picture to staff. Nothing.
“On Jan. 11, 39 days after the family last spoke to Walls, a pest control worker entered his room at the Hudson Mohawk center and found a badly decomposed body on the bed. It was Walls. He had been there the whole time….
“…Ketter-Walls said her family met this winter with a local Department of Social Services employee, who said they were surprised to hear Walls had died since the center was still receiving state reimbursement for his stay into the month of February — nearly two months after he died.”