There is more information out about the deaths of three Fulton County residents that died within less than two months time. Emotions were high today during the inquest in a Fulton County Courtroom.
Three lives gone in a short period of time. Two-year-old Taylor Hamm died on October 31, 2007. Autopsy results were inconclusive.
A Fulton County Coroner's jury determined the child died from undetermined causes.
Then on November 22, her mother Jennifer Hamm died of a drug overdose. The Coroner's jury heard testimony that Jennifer Hamm had ten times the therapeutic level of Methadone in her system in addition to her depression medication.
The coroner's jury ruled her death accidental with further investigation needed.
Connie Hamm, Joseph Hadsell's mother, said, "I feel sorry for everybody involved. You can't blame anyone. These kids lost their lives so young."
Connie Hamm, who is not related to Jennifer Hamm's family, lost her son Joseph Hadsell on December 6.
He was a friend of Jennifer's husband, Jake Hamm. The Fulton County Coroner said Hadsell died from bronchial pneumonia caused by taking methadone and cocaine.
"Joey had gotten hooked on pain killers. He went on the methadone clinic to get off the pain killers and it's synthetic heroin. Anybody who is hooked on drugs, the government makes it."
Judy Howard , Hadsell's aunt, said, "A legal way for the government to get people off drugs. They make it legal to take them off of one drug and put them legally on methadone. It's just as bad as other drugs."
But Hadsell's family members say he had been done with the program for a couple of months. His friend and co-worker Jake Hamm was still enrolled in the methadone program.
Fulton County Coroner Steven Hines said, "There's obviously some issues going on with the methadone that we're discovering. There's some common denominator with the last two cases. We don't believe it played a role in the infant's death. The two year old. I believe it's natural causes. But it got worse with the mother dying of methadone and friend also having methadone toxicity as the cause of death. I believe methadone is becoming a big problem in the area nowadays."
The coroner's jury ruled Joseph Hadsell's cause of death as underdetermined with more investigation needed.
"I just have so many questions. It still seems after the inquest I still have them. I was hoping that there would be some questions answered for me. It just seems so senseless for three people to be lost."
It appears many questions will remain unanswered, but what's known for sure is a family has to find a way to move forward after so much tragedy hit in so little time.
The Fulton County Coroner says the cases of Jennifer Hamm and Joseph Hadsell now move to the Sheriff's office and the State's Attorneys office for more investigation.
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