They’re two Conejo Valley moms bound together by tragedy.
Now, they’re trying to prevent other families from living the same pain, by educating others with a podcast.
Katrina Simmons and Kristy Kastler both lost sons to Fentanyl overdoses. Both Simmons son Dillon, and Kastler’s son Devin were 28 when they died. The Thousand Oaks women had spent years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on rehab programs.
Simmons talked about her son, Dillon.
"Just from the beginning, he was larger than life. He had energy that was just exuberant. Bouncy, and beautiful," said Simmons. "He just did everything well. He was super loving, and super smart."
Simmons said as a teen, Dillon turned to marijuana. Then as an adult, alcohol became his drug of choice.
"The alcoholism was in full fuel. It was immediate, like we needed to get him into treatment," said Simmons. "We saw that markers weren't being hit, things like holding jobs, getting into new relationships, making new friends." She said his friends had moved on with new lives. "Dillon did get a film editing degree, but he stopped there. Things weren't progressing."
Simmons says as an adult, it was hard to get her son into yet another rehab. He was in a program in 2022 when Simmons got the phone call that’s a parent's worst nightmare.
"When the call came, my son had left rehab. I believed it was going to be a call like you need to come get your son, he's in another situation, he's drunk in public, or something where I would have gone to go get him," said Simmons. "The man on the other line said 'That's not this call. Your son has been found deceased."
Kristy Kastler says her son Devin also started off life with a lot of promise.
"He had a heart. All he wanted to do is help people. He was kind, he was funny, and even in his preschool years, his teachers noticed he loved music," said Kastler.
But Kastler said after he was bullied in elementary school, they had to switch schools. As a teen. Devin turned to marijuana, and eventually harder drugs. She knew heneeded help, which led to a seemingly endless cycle of rehab efforts.
"We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to save my child," said the mother. "He had overdosed several times. I used to run to the police for help, but I also ran from the police. Devin would be at home. We'd go to counseling trying to get his drug use under control. He's asleep in his bed. They'd come pull him out of bed. They would test him, he would test dirty, and he'd be kicked out of rehab for testing dirty."
He went through rehab programs 18 times, but it never stuck.
"He overdosed a week before he died," said Kastler. "The hospital released him at the tip of withdrawal. Then, he overdosed one more time. He was at home when I found him."
The two mothers met online, on a site for those who had lost loved ones to substance abuse. They decided they wanted to do something to help others, and came up with the idea for the podcast.
"We have this shared pain, this complete understanding," said Simmons. "So many levels of grief, and how somone loses their child, and for us, it was also the specific loss to fentanyl. When we met, I was spinning, just spinning to do something to take away my feeling inside. A mother never gives us on their child, and that's how we connected, because of our empathy of wanting to do soething bigger."
They met local radio announcer and producer Spencer Fisher, who has been helping them produce the podcast, called DK805. They have five episodes online.
Kastler said while it isn’t easy talking about what happened to their sons, they hope it will make a difference to other families. "I'm reliving it, but I'm living it anyways. My son didn't get sick alone. My son didn't die alone, but the journey felt so alone. My son's voice isn't silent. He's speaking though me."
The idea is if they can help even one person, or one family avoid what happen to their sons, Dillon and Devin, reliving their painful stories is worth it.
