[music playing]
My name is Erin.
I'm 36 years old, and I'm from Bradenton, Florida.
My sweetheart and the love of my life
is my five-year-old son, Bobby.
My mother's taking care of my son,
because now I'm a homeless prostitute
that walks the street to pay for Dilaudids.
[music playing]
I pick at my skin a lot.
I just-- I don't know why I started doing that.
It's disgusting.
And there's so much bacteria on your fingers,
that they just get infected.
[music playing]
My days right now are a vicious cycle.
I need to get up and make money to be able to use.
How are you doing?
I just got one.
OK
OK.
I know that Erin has been arrested for prostitution.
My sister has been essentially dead to me for some time.
The person that is living in her body today
is not the sister that I know.
Erin was my second child.
She was always happy.
She was always smiling, listening to music,
playing, dancing a lot.
Even though we were raised by a single mom,
we weren't without all the love we needed,
all the care and guidance that we needed.
As far as I knew, she was a happy child
until she started into puberty.
And then she started getting very rebellious.
[music playing]
I woke up to him sitting on the side of my bed.
Just running his fingers through my hair and just saying,
you're so beautiful, over and over.
You just go somewhere else.
You think, I just got to get through this.
[music playing]
I started getting promiscuous at, like, 14.
When I was 14, I looked about 18.
I started realizing that the prettier you are,
the sexier you are, that men will buy you stuff and give you
whatever you want.
But then-- [laughs] then you got to do whatever they want.
She had a lot of friends in the band business.
She was always going to concerts.
She was always going different places.
She got to do all these exciting things.
I was getting backstage at whatever concert I went
to, hanging out with, seriously, the biggest bands in the world.
I think that she thought she would become
one of their celebrity wives.
[music playing]
I keep thinking that opportunities are always
going to present themselves.
It just doesn't happen.
[music playing]
Soon after Bobby was born, Erin
had told the doctors that she had gotten into a fight
and had neck pain.
And the doctors prescribed her Dilaudids.
From that point on, she was hooked.
[music playing]
If my kids were taken away from me,
I think I would just quit cold turkey, go through the detox,
whatever it took.
He didn't get taken away from me.
He didn't get taken away from you by the courts,
but he got taken away from you by me.
No. I asked--
Even though you agreed--
--if he could come live with you.
--even though you agreed, of course you're going
to want him to stay with me.
He's stable.
He goes to school.
He eats every night.
He has a nice bed to sleep in.
He would rather be happy living at Motel 6
with you than in a mansion with me.
He tells me, laying in bed at night,
it feels like you're already in heaven.
That's pretty bad.
How could I want to be with my child so bad,
yet still keep going back to Dilaudids?
I just don't understand that.
All right, I'll see you later.
- OK, bye. - Bye.
I love you. - Love you.
[music playing]
I always get the feeling she's going
to be murdered out there in the streets
for one reason or another.
I have been beaten.
I have been hit.
I have had a gun pulled on me.
I've had a knife pulled on me.
It's just scary.
Hey.
Hi.
Hey.
Let me-- go get her.
Want me to take that?
Oh, my god.
Hey.
I'm here today in hopes that you get the help
that you so desperately need.
It makes me sad that Bobby wonders
why his mom isn't with him when his friends'
mommies are always there.
When he cries so hard at night for you, saying it's
just not the same without you.
I worry every single night if you're alive or dead.
And I want my daughter back, and Bobby wants his mommy.
[crying]
Erin, I'm here today because I care about what happens to you
and want to see you living a better life for yourself
and Bobby.
You used to be so funny and witty.
Now your personality seems so dull
that it's barely recognizable.
My wish for you is to accept the help
that's being offered so that I could have my sister back.
Will you please go get help today?
[music playing]
Thank god.
Thank you.
I love you.
I'm sorry to put you guys though that.
Of course.
I love you so much.
Everything that's been uncovered
has not been easy to hear or talk about.
All right.
I'm proud of her for going so willingly.
This really is the start of a whole fresh, new life.
And the only one that can screw it up is me.
[music playing]