Ms. Johnson, a retired medical assistant, said she was still baffled by her son’s death, which could have been prevented with intravenous antibiotics. Most likely, she has concluded, he dismissed it as a chest cold. “Why didn’t he know he was sick?” she said. “That’s what I don’t understand.”
A third death was discovered on Jan. 29, in a cold, squalid apartment in the desert town of Arco. Jesse Turnipseed, 36, was found that morning by his brother, John, wedged in a trash-choked closet where he liked to sleep. John, who slept next door, said that when he drifted off, his brother had been watching “Inuyasha,” one of his favorite anime series.
The Arco apartment, which they had found on Craigslist for $570 a month, was all they could afford, he said, and was so overrun with roaches and bedbugs that they saturated it with insecticide, which made it difficult to breathe. “What we needed was another place to live,” John said.
Tara Parsons, the Butte County coroner, said the cause of death was positional asphyxiation.
Mr. Turnipseed, in an undated photo provided by his brother, John.
Thomas Tueller, whose counseling practice delivered services to Mr. Turnipseed, described Mr. Turnipseed’s death as “totally preventable.” The team had found a new apartment for the two brothers when the program was terminated, he said. The paperwork was done.
“If we would have had one more week, we probably could have gotten him moved, stabilized and on his way,” Mr. Tueller said. “We were so close.”
In February, word came of a fourth death, in a family home in Boise. The man’s family has not released a cause of death, but Ms. Scuri, whose team provided services to him, said he was in his 40s and managing chronic health conditions that required him to take medication.
When his delusions were not treated, though, he believed the government was trying to poison him, she said. “That was the belief,” she said. “The government made the yellow pill, so he wasn’t going to take the yellow pill.”