outside court, the burik s leave for the last time. their sentence is for life. it s never going to be done. christian was a child. he s our flesh and blood. he s someone so important to us we would have given our lives for him. you know, our job now is just to get the word out there to the rest of the people so that no other families have to go through this kind of thing and to honor our son, to honor his memory. only kids and young adults sitting in here today, please tell them this story. since their son christian s death, the burik s have become activists getting out the word on the dangers of synthetic drugs. north dakota has put in new legislation banning a number of synthetics. and federally, the drug that killed christian and elijah is now on the list of banned substances. don t be fooled.
in. because i couldn t see him like that. i was he was dead. he was dead. yeah. we got the phone call that eli wasn t breathing, he was blue in the face. you had to call your mom. i called her when i was outside waiting for 911. and told her? told her eli died. were you able to fully tell her why? no. i was ashamed of myself for failing him, more or less. i felt like i had failed him. justin was a teen when elijah s family had taken him in, raised hip as their own. after everything he had done for me, eli was lying there dead, and i was alive. elijah suffered multiple organ failures and went into cardiac arrest. cutting the oxygen supply to his
what killed this healthy 18-year-old was a mystery that was about to strike this small midwest community again. we need an ambulance. we have a kid here who is not breathing. okay. where is it at? east grand forks. i don t think he s breathing at all there. no, he s dead. we need somebody now. can you start cpr with him? it was three days before eli s birthday. he would be 18. he wanted to go to grand forks to see his cousin and spend time there with justin. melissa katz s son elijah, was in grand forks to celebrate an upcoming birthday. he was with his foster brother, justin. what were you planning that weekend? not a whole lot. just hang out, basically. they would find themselves hanging out and sleeping over at the home of a cousin s boyfriend. neither had known 18-year-old adam budge. but he seemed nice. budge said he had a special
here in the u.s. have gone unanswered. this is the funeral to eli. melissa katz, elijah sty s mother, doesn t understand what there is to negotiate. chinese factories are making a fortune, she says, selling poison. what would you like to say to them? how dare you come into my country and sell drugs to our children. do you think they care? no. they don t care. cnn has learned the synthetic drugs that killed melissa s son, elijah, and christian bjerk, were most likely made in china. and so far, there appears to be no movement by the u.s. to find and prosecute the manufacturer of this synthetic poison. chris myers, the federal prosecutor in this case, will not discuss the source of the chemicals. and that is not good enough for
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