YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. — According to her mother, Jonetta Washington was ready to get help for the drug addiction she battled for years.
On July 11, 2023, she voluntarily entered the Judge Joseph Donofrio Center in Youngstown.
Court documents show her initial drug screen showed fentanyl and other drugs in her system.
Three days later, on July 14, the documents said another screen detected no fentanyl.
Then, on July 17th, the 33-year-old mother of three was found "unresponsive and barely breathing inside her room, according to a police report. The report also said a "broken black spoon with a white powdered substance" was also found in her room.
Washington was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
A postmortem toxicology report found fentanyl in her system again.
"Why is there fentanyl in her system when it wasn't there on the 14th?" her mother, Gwen Washington, asked.
Search for answers
More than three years after her daughter's death, Washington still doesn't know how her daughter obtained the drug.
"I needed to do something more," she said. "I couldn't let it just end like that."
Her attorney filed a lawsuit last year against Meridian Healthcare and others involved in operating the Donofrio Center.
During her deposition, Meridian HealthCare's Chief Quality Officer said there was a quality assurance review and changes made after Washington's death.
However, Washington's attorney, contends in court filings that no one investigated how Jonetta obtained fentanyl, including Meridian HealthCare and Youngstown Police.
News 5 Investigators requested an on-camera interview with Meridian Healthcare. Their attorney declined, citing the pending litigation.
The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health, which regulates addiction treatment centers, said it investigated Washington's death. The agency has yet to respond to questions about the investigation's findings.
More deaths
"It should be a duty to them to make sure drugs don't enter their facility," Washington said.
Washington is not the the first patient to die at the Donofrio Center.
According to records we obtained from Youngstown Police, seven other patients died at the facility between June 2019 and April 2026.
Postmortem toxicology reports show five of the patients tested positive for fentanyl.
"I would say that is certainly a high number," Michael Johnson, Senior Managing Director of Behavioral Health, CARF International, said. CARF International evaluates and accredits addiction treatment centers.
"That would certainly indicate that something that the program is doing in their admission and search procedures is probably not effective," Johnson said.
Johnson said addiction treatment centers have a responsibility to try to keep drugs out of their facilities.
"That is definitely one of the things that every treatment center would want to do, would be to maintain a safe environment for the people that they're serving," he said.
However, he said it can be challenging. "You're wanting to make sure that you're still establishing a positive relationship with the people that you're serving so you don't want it to feel jail-like," he said. "You also want to be able to do the best possible job of searching belongings, searching individuals that are coming in, but still trying to maintain some sort of relationship and boundary that is therapeutic."
He said it can be particularly difficult to prevent fentanyl from being brought into treatment facilities. " It's so small. It's very easy to hide into cracks and crevices and into little pockets and things like that, that would not be easy for somebody who was just doing a review or a quick look at supplies to be able to see," he said.
Over the summer, the Donofrio Center announced it eliminated its detox program, blaming financial challenges.
Moving forward
Washington said her daughter was a "sweetheart," who would give you the shirt off her back.
"She has the biggest smile," Washington said. "Anytime she would walk in a room, she would just light it up."
"I miss her so much," Washington said. "Her sons miss her. They miss her dearly."
Washington said her grandsons, 19 and eight-year-old twin boys, also want answers about how their mom died.
"Somebody needs to step up to the plate and make sure we have answers for a family that is hurting," she said. "Do your jobs. Investigate. Test the powder. Do what you're supposed to do."
