Just over one month since Jordan Cashmyer was found dead at the young age of 26, the late 16 & Pregnant star’s mother has tried to shed some light on what prompted this tragedy.
Yes, Cashmyer had battled a substance abuse problem for years.
Yes, she was even arrested in 2017 on a drug possession charge and went through a period of time when she was broke and homeless.
Yes, she even lost custody of her firstborn to ex-boyfriend Derek Taylor, who appeared alongside Jordan on the aforementioned MTV reality show.
But Cashmyer had seemingly broken free from her demons.
She had celebrated her sobriety about a year before she died, just in time to welcome second daughter Lyla in early 2021.
What happened since then?
What caused Jordan to pass away from an overdose of fentanyl, despropionyl fentanyl and cocaine intoxication… as confirmed by a recent autopsy?
According to Kari Burchill, Jordan’s biological mother, Cashmyer really had cleaned up her act upon becoming a mother once again… only for her fiancee, Michael Schaffer, to die of his own overdose.
He was also Lilah’s dad.
“Michael dying was the trigger. But she did do it. She stayed clean. No one will take that from her," Burchill told The Sun late last week, adding in the interview:
"We’re heartbroken. It’s been very difficult."
The autopsy states that Cashmyer was discovered in her Westminster, Maryland apartment on January 15.
There “appeared to be a needle puncture” on her right arm, this same report reads.
"Addiction plagues many families, and our family was not immune to it," wrote Cashmyer’s father, Dennis Cashmyer, in a heart-breaking post on a GoFundMe page in honor of his child.
"Jordan was always so full of life and full of personality. She had a way of always making those around her laugh and smile, and her smile was truly contagious."
Last year, meanwhile, a Maryland coroner’s office revealed the cause of Michael’s September 9 death as heroin, cocaine and fentanyl intoxication.
Eerily similar and awful, huh?
With both of Lyla’s parents now deceased, Jordan’s father and Jordan’s stepmother, Jessica Cashmyer, have filed for guardianship of the infant.
“We did not foresee starting back over, and all the comes along with that,” Dennis added via this GoFundMe page.
“Lyla has been our family’s greatest joy and addition; she has been our saving grace during this difficult time.”
Jordan gave birth to daughter Genevieve with Taylor on 16 & Pregnant in 2014.
The couple eventuallly broke up, however, under the very worst of terms.
Shortly after Cashmyer died, a social media user offered Derek her condolences on his loss, prompting him to shoot back in response, referring to himself and his daughter: