Larry Dean Simpson, found dead in a Manatee Circle K bathroom, was a heroin statistic -- and Hailey's dad

MANATEE -- Hailey Simpson, 15, got only nine months of her life with a clean and sober father. Those nine months ended when Larry Dean Simpson relapsed on Dec. 11, 2014, and was found dead in a convenience store bathroom.

That morning had been as normal as possible for the teenager, who attends Braden River High School. They both got up and brushed their teeth, laughed and joked together. They talked about plans to see a movie that weekend.

"He just looked at me and said, 'You know, I love you. I love you a lot, Hailey.' And I said, 'Thank you, I love you, too,'" Hailey recalled. "And then I got a phone call that he was found in a Circle K bathroom."

Larry Simpson was one of 63 deaths blamed on an overdose of heroin and fentanyl in the Manatee-Sarasota area in 2014, which has increased to more than 150 suspected overdose deaths in 2015. Each of those deaths leaves behind innumerable families and friends who feel the loss like Hailey.

While her father is part of a horrible statistic that exploded in the past year, Hailey is part of a growing statistic herself. Out of 568 children removed from their parents' care by Child Protective Services in Manatee County through November 2015, 284 have been sheltered due to substance abuse -- exactly 50 percent. CPS sheltered a total 179 children in 2013 and 387 in 2014.

Manatee County had the most per-capita overdose deaths due to heroin and fentanyl in Florida in 2014, according to a medical examiner's report. Fentanyl is a painkiller between 80 and 100 times more potent than morphine, and much of Manatee County's heroin supply has been found cut with fentanyl.

Hailey's relationship with her father was defined by his addiction. Her mother, who was also an addict, abandoned Hailey when she was 6 months old; when she was a year old, her father was convicted of killing an 80-year-old woman while he was driving under the influence of drugs. He went to jail for five years and Hailey went to live with her aunt.

Once her father got out, he went straight back to using, which Hailey believes was at least in part because of his guilt over the DUI.

Simpson got worse as he became addicted to opioids during the so-called pill mills crisis, when some Florida doctors would prescribe painkillers to people who didn't really need them, flooding the streets with cheap opiates. Once pill mills started shutting down in 2011 and prices started climbing, Simpson turned to the cheaper heroin, according to Hailey.

Even in the midst of addiction, Hailey says, he tried to be a good father from afar. He would call her on the phone to see how she was doing, she would call him when she wanted advice and they would see each other when he wasn't high. But there was always tension.

"I was always telling him, 'Me, or the drugs,'" Hailey said. "I just made it clear to him, do you want to go down that lifestyle, or do you want to pick your daughter?"

Holding out hope

Nine months before his death, after using heroin for about two years, Simpson finally seemed ready to give up drugs for good. He decided to check in for rehab with Centerstone Florida, formerly known as Manatee Glens.

"One day he came to me and was like, 'I have to step up and be a father to you.' So he went and was there (rehab) for I think a month, and he got out and he did good," Hailey said. "He got a job, met his girlfriend in rehab and just gained everybody's trust back."

Simpson worked as a carpenter during that time, even building what Hailey calls her princess bed for a Christmas present. She got a drug-free Thanksgiving with him, the first holiday she spent with him that he stayed sober.

"I'm thankful for having a Thanksgiving with him where he's not nodded out, he doesn't have his face in his food, you know, he's actually there, as a whole," Hailey said. "We laughed, we ate and it was a happy time together."

But after that last ordinary morning on Dec. 11, Simpson didn't come home that night. Hailey and her aunt thought he must have been working late, but he wasn't picking up any of their phone calls. They became worried he had relapsed, but the reality was worse.

"We called and called and called, and left messages saying, 'I don't know where you're at, I don't know what's wrong. If you did relapse it's OK, you've been clean for nine months and you've gained all our trust back. You can come back home and we'll forgive you,'" Hailey said. "He never called back, never called back."

In the morning, Hailey ran into his bedroom and he still wasn't there. Then she got the phone call: The person who had sold Simpson fentanyl-laced heroin the day before, who was a family friend, said he was dead. Simpson had been found dead in a Circle K bathroom 18 hours before his family knew. The incident report by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said he was found face down in the bathroom with a needle in his arm, and that he had been in there for at least 30 minutes before the store manager became alarmed and called 9-1-1. Simpson was 45.

Hailey later learned that he had tried to call his girlfriend, also a recovering addict, before he used. Hailey believes he wanted his girlfriend to talk him out of using. But she didn't pick up.

Those left behind

Hailey says her father's mistakes have taught her a lot, and she wants to be a substance abuse counselor. But she doesn't know if it's ever something that she and her family will truly be able to move past. She thinks about him every day, and life keeps throwing out reminders of the milestones in her life that her father won't be around for.

"I think we haven't faced the fact that it actually happened, we can't really move on," Hailey said. "Like the day I get married, when I walk down the aisle, when I graduate, go on the stage to get my diploma, my dad won't be there."

If she could tell her dad anything, Hailey would want him to know that he mattered, that he wasn't just an addict, but he was her father and she loved him.

"I wish I could tell him that he meant something, because he always questioned that. I want to say, 'Hey, you actually meant something to me,'" Hailey said. "Everybody was always like, 'You're a junkie, you're nothing, you're never going to be anybody.' And as a daughter, you think, 'That's my dad, you can't sit here and tell me that he's nothing.'"

Kate Irby, Herald online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055. You can follow her on Twitter@KateIrby

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 3:07 PM with the headline "Larry Dean Simpson, found dead in a Manatee Circle K bathroom, was a heroin statistic -- and Hailey's dad ."