Thirty-three months after their daughter Rosanne Boyland’s tragic death at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Bret and Cheryl Boyland feel new pain every time a media outlet publishes the false claim that their daughter died of a drug overdose.
On Oct. 12, a prominent national newspaper wrote that Ms. Boyland “died of what was determined to be a methamphetamine overdose.”
Within a day, that claim spread all over the internet, even appearing as a snippet on the website of the Merriam-Webster dictionary under the word "die." A week later, the newspaper corrected the error, but the family said the damage was done—again.
The article brought to the surface new pain for the Boylands, whose daughter died in Washington at age 34 after collapsing in the Lower West Terrace tunnel.
News outlets have routinely claimed that Ms. Boyland died of a drug overdose.
In April 2021, a popular news website's headline blared "Capitol Rioter Rosanne Boyland Died of Drug Overdose, Not Trampling." The same day, a prominent news magazine stated that Ms. Boyland "died as a result of a drug overdose." A British tabloid used the same wording in its coverage.
The official cause of death was listed as amphetamine toxicity from her prescription medication Adderall. The manner of death was an accident.
The Boylands challenged the amphetamine finding, eventually hiring an independent forensic pathologist who said Ms. Boyland most likely died of compressional asphyxia, not from Adderall or illegal drugs.
Getting anyone to listen has been a never-ending battle.
“We knew from the early morning of January 7 that somehow the cause of death would be listed as drug-related,” Cheryl Boyland told The Epoch Times. “Both the medical examiner’s office and the detective said to expect a fentanyl overdose. We told them that was impossible, but they continued to insist on it.”
The fentanyl theory was due to the presence of fluid in Ms. Boyland’s lungs, according to a Jan. 7, 2021, Metropolitan Police Department report. The theory was wrong, as toxicology tests would prove a few months later.
Ms. Boyland didn't use fentanyl or street drugs. She had battled addiction earlier in her life but had been clean and sober for five years when the Jan. 6, 2021, overdose accusations began.
“For anyone like Rosanne or their family members who helped fight through addiction battles for years, to be falsely reported as dying of an overdose is about the worst slap in the face anyone could get,” Mr. Boyland told The Epoch Times. “To take it a step further and to see a lot of journalists say she died of a meth overdose is an even worse slap in the face.”
Ms. Boyland had taken the prescription medication Adderall, a stimulant that’s used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, for 10 years without complication, her parents said.
Adderall is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Ms. Boyland had taken the medication for 10 years without complications, her parents said. The stimulant is made up of four amphetamine salts.
Methamphetamine—a highly addictive and potent stimulant—isn't the same drug as Adderall.
Meth is one of the most widely abused controlled substances in the United States. Its illegal use has driven a steep increase in overdose deaths over the past decade. Much of the illegal supply of meth comes from criminal gangs in Mexico, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
When the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Ms. Boyland died of “acute amphetamine intoxication,” the Boylands challenged the conclusion, but their concerns were ignored by the medical examiner’s office, they said.
The Boylands said that Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Francisco Diaz told them that the “results of the autopsy were not clear-cut” and that the only thing that they could “all agree upon” as a cause of death was Ms. Boyland's prescription of Adderall.
“We asked him to include the term ‘prescription’ because others would believe she died from a meth overdose,” Mrs. Boyland said.
“He responded that everyone knows the difference between amphetamine and methamphetamine. Our family knew better.”
Victory Over Addiction
There was a time in Ms. Boyland’s life when she used heroin and crystal meth. Her parents said she worked very hard to get clean.
“Rosanne spent a long time in treatment, trying to overcome her addictions,” Mrs. Boyland said. “She dedicated herself to helping others. Her friends have countless stories about her support during their trying times. Many of them relied on her to be strong.
“During her memorial service, we emphasized that she did not relapse, not only for Rosanne’s reputation, but so that her friends wouldn’t give up and relapse.”
The Boylands said their daughter would have taken her morning dose of Adderall at about 7 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.
There's no evidence that Ms. Boyland was ailing or impaired when she and her friend Justin Winchell attended President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse or when they walked to the U.S. Capitol after 1 p.m. that day.
A video clip of Ms. Boyland ascending the stairs from the Capitol’s West Plaza to the Lower West Terrace that afternoon showed her smiling from behind her American flag sunglasses. She didn't appear ill.
“It’s impossible for her to have taken her medication about 7 a.m., walk around fine all day long, then overdose in the late afternoon without taking any more medication,” Mrs. Boyland said. “The medical examiner’s office refused to answer us about that. The blood sample used for toxicology tests was taken from an area [of the body] known to give inaccurate results—probably deliberately.”
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) declined to comment on the issues that were raised by the Boylands.
The department "does not release information or discuss cases with the media beyond the release of an official statement as to cause and manner of death, which was previously done in this case," Rodney K. Adams, OCME chief counsel, wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times. "This is based on the District’s privacy statute and out of respect for the privacy of the survivors."
New Cause of Death
In April 2022, the Boylands hired forensics consultant group Park Dietz & Associates to do a comprehensive review of the autopsy and its conclusions. A new autopsy wasn't possible because Ms. Boyland’s body was cremated.
A board-certified forensic pathologist from Park Dietz ruled out amphetamine intoxication as the proximate cause of death but said it might have been a secondary contributing factor.
“There was no evidence of illicit drug use,” the forensic pathologist wrote. “The finding of amphetamine in her postmortem blood and gastric contents is consistent with her prescribed use of Adderall, which is a combination drug containing four amphetamine salts.”
The concentration of amphetamine in Ms. Boyland’s blood was elevated, the doctor wrote, but other factors could explain this finding.
“Ms. Boyland's obesity may have potentiated the storage of the drug in her body tissues,” the pathologist wrote, "and blood from the inferior vena cava is not the optimal specimen for testing for amphetamines, which may be subject to postmortem redistribution.”
The pathologist said Ms. Boyland’s cause of death was compressional asphyxia, “a situation in which pressure exerted on the chest or back of an individual impedes normal breathing and often leaves no diagnostic physical findings.”
The pathologist said Ms. Boyland’s surroundings at the time of her collapse can’t be ignored.
Police had deployed an unknown gas into the tunnel at about 4:20 p.m., two minutes after Ms. Boyland walked into the structure, security footage shows. Witnesses described a sensation of the oxygen being sucked out of the atmosphere. The crowd panicked and ran to escape the tunnel.
