RED BLUFF – An impassioned plea for political reform spurred by a grieving parent took place at a town hall meeting Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the county offices on Oak Street.
District 2 Tehama County Supervisor Candy Carlson hosted the meeting that featured Matt Capelouto from Southern California via zoom. Approximately 30 people attended either in-person or via zoom. Capelouto shared his experience about his daughter’s death as a result of fentanyl poisoning.
He painted a picture of a vibrant young college student who privately struggled with depression beginning in her early teen years. Capelouto said he is the father of four daughters. He said his daughter was from a two-parent household.
He described her as someone who always put on a “smiling face” and said she was academically advanced – earning a full academic scholarship to college. In Alexandra’s sophomore year in college in 2019, she returned home for a holiday break, according to Capelouto. “My wife found her dead in her bed on Christmas break.
She was 20 years old –just starting to make her way in life.” He said a deputy found a half a pill on her dresser and her death was deemed an accidental overdose. He said unbeknownst to him and his wife a drug dealer delivered to their home fake oxycodone pills, which were actually fentanyl.
They became aware of this once they were able to retrieve messages on her cell phone following her death. “She made a bad choice, but not an evil choice,” Capelouto s.
