DENVER — Drivers heading north on a busy stretch of Federal Boulevard will likely notice the image of a young woman who was known to frequent the area while caught up in a fentanyl addiction that turned deadly.
“You don’t want to see your daughter on a billboard, but we are doing this because we are trying to just let other people know we don’t want other parents going through what I’m going through,” Elaine Lopez said.
Lopez, with the help of family, friends and other advocacy groups, paid out of her own pocket to put up the image of her daughter Tiyana Lopez at the corner of West 55th Avenue and Federal Boulevard.
Lopez said her daughter hung out in the area because it was easy for her to obtain fentanyl from a nearby location. Tiyana died in a field near the billboard hours after being released from jail in October of last year.
Lopez said she hopes people will take notice of the billboard, especially those who knew her daughter on the streets.
“They’ll think about maybe their interactions with her. They’ll think about drugs and what drugs can do,” Lopez said.
Lopez said she tried everything to get her daughter off the streets and away from fentanyl addiction, which began with the use of painkillers.
“I even tried to do an involuntary commitment to try to get her in there, and that’s even hard. I tried many things,” Lopez said.
Family friend and community advocate Elaine Romero said she spoke to Tiyana at jail hours before she was released and then found dead. Romero said she had a home ready for Tiyana to help with recovery.
“She was tired of the streets, but sometimes, life trauma will bring them a vice of some sort,” Romero said.
The billboard is part of a national campaign called Rachel’s Angels which seeks to put up similar billboards across the country.
Tiyana is among the 920 people in Colorado who died of fentanyl in 2022, according to numbers from Colorado’s health department.
This year, through the month of June, the agency reported fentanyl has killed 654 people in Colorado.
The Lopez family is inviting the public to a prayer circle around the billboard at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14. Doves will be released in Tiyana’s memory.
Tiyana is survived by her 5-year-old son.
Elaine Lopez has also launched a website with resources here.
>If you have any information about this story or would like to send a news tip, you can contact jeremy@9news.com.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS