NARRATOR: This program contains subject
matter and language that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Viewer discretion is advised.
ELLIOT: My name is Elliot I am 27 years old.
When I first moved to Las Vegas, I
wanted to work on one of those nice Wolfgang Puck restaurants.
I wanted to be like Anthony Bourdain.
I wanted to be a great chef.
Cooking was my passion, but heroin got in the way of that.
I'm going to go this way to use it in the dumpster,
if you guys want to fill me.
Apparently, I'm addicted to heroin,
methamphetamine, and Xanax.
Elliot does steal to fund his addiction.
I just got these items from a store.
I don't want to say how, but--
EVAN: Elliot's stolen from me on several occasions,
broken into my house and taken that tens of thousands
of dollars in tools.
He has stolen my wedding ring.
ELAINA: He's gotten to the point where
Elliot puts himself in dangerous situations every day.
He's been in jail, robbed, beaten up,
overdosed in the hospital.
I watched Elliot overdose in front of me,
heart stopped beating.
It was terrifying.
I thought he was gone.
MIKE: Elliot was born in Bakersfield, California.
He was a very happy baby.
EVAN: Growing up with brothers, we
grew up old school-- fistfights, playing in the dirt.
It was tough looking after four boys.
One day she was happy.
One day she was crying her eyes out.
Tonia had a very hard time handling the kids.
She was diagnosed with postpartum depression.
When Elliot was about five years old, Tonia and I divorced.
EVAN: Growing up with Tonia, we struggled.
We used to put ketchup in hot water with peppers potato soup
to just have something to eat.
We were always hungry.
I just--
I couldn't make it financially.
When Elliot was eight years old, it became apparent to me
that Tonia was no longer capable of taking care of our children.
I wanted her to be a mom because she's my mom.
I loved her.
I wanted her to take me to do all the things all
the other kids did, you know?
MIKE: Carrie already had four children of her own,
so we put together a big house and a big family.
They all love each other very much to this day.
ELLIOT: I was in love with this girl.
Elliot was very depressed, in a deep depression.
BRENT: We all knew that Elliot was smoking weed,
doing the usual teenager stuff.
But after his girlfriend had passed away,
we all noticed that it went from 0 to 100.
ELLIOT: So they was like, oh, we got the thing for you.
Her name is heroin.
Come on give him a try.
Right then, I knew.
I knew I was addicted.
MIKE: Elliot did very well.
He bounced back really well.
CARRIE: He still had dreams and hopes.
And I was very excited when he decided to further his--
his cooking dreams.
EVAN: When Elliot went to Cordon Bleu, I was hopeful for him.
It seemed like he was taking a step in the right direction,
to be sober and to start a career.
ELLIOT: When I first moved out here, I called my brother up.
He gave me a bedroom.
EVAN: Elliot and all of our siblings looked up to Bryce.
BRENT: Bryce was everyone's hero.
EVAN: He was our leader.
He was the oldest.
BRENT: They're our best friends.
EVAN: Elliot started out at a pretty well-known,
world famous restaurant.
ELLIOT: Everybody I knew from, my chef to the bus boys,
smoked weed, drank alcohol, did cocaine.
Some of the cooks sold cocaine.
Bryce was struggling with a heroin addiction as well.
He was in recovery.
When Elliot was 26, Bryce had just gotten out of rehab.
Bryce and Elliot lived together
and had a sobriety pact.
They-- they needed a support system, and each other
was a good idea.
BRENT: Elliot definitely tried staying clean.
But about seven months ago, something happened.
Last year, we got a call that changed our family.
None of us were the same.
None of us still are the same.
My sister called me and she said, hey,
Bryce got into an accident.
EVAN: Our brother was coming back
from Pahrump on his motorcycle.
BRENT: So he was coming down a road,
and car was coming into the lane he was in.
He hit the median, and he flew off of his bike.
He was thrown from his motorcycle
and landed on a metal cactus.
ELAINA: Ambulance driver said that he's never seen
something so bad in his life.
They said they had to physically hold
them together at the scene.
MIKE: After Bryce's death, Elliot confided in me
that he and Bryce had used drugs together
prior to Bryce's accident.
EVAN: I believe Elliot took it the worst.
He was with him that day.
I don't know they were using.
And I know he feels directly responsible for it,
even though it's not his fault.
He blamed himself for what happened.
I think Elliot overdosed the day of
or the day after Bryce passed.
I thought I was going to lose him, too.
Whenever Elliot experiences a loss,
he turns to drugs to numb the pain, I think.
Honey, we're going to start our own business together.
[SAD MUSIC PLAYING]
Can you guys stop filming, please?
PRODUCER: There's the ambulance.
You see the lights right there?
WOMAN: Oh, yeah.
PRODUCER: This right here?
I think they got him in there.
Follow the ambulance.
[INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
No, no, no, no, no, no.
We're not going.
Elliot.
We're not going, please?
No, I want you to be seen first.
So stupid.
TONIA: What is stupid?
Yeah, it's killing people.
That's why you shouldn't take drugs from strangers
and you need your own Xanax.
Why don't you have your own Xanax?
Yeah, well then don't take it.
EVAN: It was very unhealthy atmosphere growing up.
Tonia has a very, very toxic personality.
Not a very good mother.
She took us from our father when we were very young.
When I was about six years old, Elliot was five,
my dad essentially went to work one day
and came home and everything was gone.
No warning, nothing.
She just up and left him and took all the kids.
She, got child support for my father
but used it all in herself and we would go hungry.
No way.
Yeah.
And then how did you come about moving with your dad?
One day, she decided that she was going to walk us
300 miles in the dead of summer with no water provisions
to Bakersfield, California, from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Oh, so you were living in Vegas?
Yeah.
And then you're going to walk to your dad's?
That was her plan?
She didn't have a plan.
And so she was walking you across--
The desert, on the--
The desert?
--interstate on the shoulder of the road.
How far did you guys get?
Five or six miles, in the dead of summer,
about 110 degrees outside.
[INAUDIBLE] pulled up--
Yeah, state trooper.
--pulled up and said, what the hell are you doing, lady?
And our sister Elaina was about
six months old, in a stroller.
Yeah.
She's been to the mental hospital multiple times,
and she was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.
OK, so what was Tonia's response
after the highway incident?
Never happened.
She said it never happened.
Completely delusional.
That's interesting that there's no reality for her.
That's really heartbreaking that she can't see that.
We always had to go to a food shelter.
We didn't go to a food shelter.
We had food stamps.
Because some of the stories that
I got is that a meal would be ketchup with hot water.
Oh, my god.
That is not true.
That's about my grandma.
That was never true.
That never happened.
I had-- we had freaking--
That's their reality.
That-- that's what they believe.
That is not true.
That's their perception.
OK, that's our perception.
But they were old enough to remember.
They're literally just being ridiculous.
ELAINA: So what I was told is she walked down the highway
with us, and I was--
TONIA: What you were told?
Well, who told you this, by who?
My brothers.
They were there.
And she walked down the highway with me.
No, I didn't walk down the highway.
I was in a stroller.
I was stupid.
So--
So when you were walking, where
were you planning on going?
I don't know.
I just wanted to get away.
And then walking from state to state.
I was not going to walk to Baker-- obviously, I'm not
going to walk to Bakersfield.
So anyway, I went to the hospital,
and then Mike got the boys like he wanted.
How long did they keep you in the hospital?
A couple weeks. Just a couple of weeks.
- A couple weeks? - Yeah.
And I got whatever--
ELAINA: The mental hospital?
Yes, when I had postpartum, Elaina--
What did they diagnose you with?
I don't know it.
Your grandma said?
Really?
No, they never said that, Elaina.
You make it sound like I'm crazy, Elaina.
I had postpartum.
ELAINA: She talks like this to us
all the time when we're just trying to have a discussion.
They're constantly talking and attacking me and bringing
up my past and dragging me-- trying
to drag me down on my past.
I'm over--
Sup.
How's everyone doing?
Hopefully, it goes smooth.
Oh, god.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
What's up, man?
Little brother.
Mmm.
The whole crew's here, huh?
Good to see you, man.
Hi.
EVAN: We love you.
This is exciting, huh?
So everyone's here today because they're worried
about you and your addiction.
And they already lost a brother, right?
Yeah.
And they're not ready to lose another one.
I need you to understand how much
you mean to me and this big family of yours
that loves you so much.
I love you beyond words can describe.
I really want you to know that you're anything
but a burden to me and this family,
and we all want you back into our arms and to our lives,
and we love you with all of our hearts.
Love you, too.
I love you so much.
(CRYING) I love you.
And they don't want what happened
to Bryce to happen to you.
[CRYING]
And I'm so sorry for anything in the past
that I've done that has negatively affected you.
And I hope that we can change things
for the better for the future.
Thank you.
TONIA: I love you.
I love you, too.
So Elliot, what do you want to do?
You want to get in that car and head to Arizona?
Yeah, I don't want to lose my family.
So it seems like the best option for me.
Thank you.
[CRYING]
I walk into a cry fest.
[LAUGHTER]
We're proud of you.
MIKE: Proud of you, Elliot.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Bye, pops.
All right, Elliot.
- Hey, man. - I'm Randy.
Nice to meet you.
Buena Vista, welcome.
Thank you.
Glad you're here.
I have been sober for 85 days.
Emotionally, mentally, physically, I feel great.
Without the drugs, it's crazy, man.
It's like I'm experiencing life all over again.
I feel like I have a lot of work to do.
This is a lifelong thing of maintenance.
Where are you working again?
I forgot.
I'm working at a restaurant again.
I'm cooking again.
But yeah, dude.
I'm really, really proud of you, man.
Thank you.
And Bryce would be proud of you if he was here, for sure.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, I think about him a lot, man.
He's a big part of, like, why I've
been pushing myself so hard.
[SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]