Kyle Sherwood flew to Los Angeles in early May for an intensive drug treatment program, and his family was hopeful he would stick. The facility, Dream Center, had come highly recommended by friends in his home state of Washington, and they were optimistic that a fresh start might be just what the 28-year-old needed.
“We were hoping that being in a different city, in a different state, he wouldn't be able to leave and find his old friends,” said his older sister, Heather Knaack.
But nothing went as planned.
Within days of arriving in Los Angeles, Sherwood left the treatment program and called home, using a borrowed phone, from MacArthur Park, a plaza of greenery and open water adjacent to downtown that has become known for be a great camp for homeless people. Her mother, Deedee Harris, said she tried to convince her youngest son to find his way back to the treatment center, but to no avail. She never heard from him again.
Within weeks, Sherwood, 28, was found dead, face down in the park's lake, according to authorities. His cause of death is under investigation, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner, but police officials said video from the park showed two men pushing Sherwood into the water.
Two people were arrested Thursday, according to Los Angeles Police Officer Rosario Cervantes, a department spokeswoman. She declined to provide details.
It was unclear what charges the two were arrested on; However, an LAPD spokesperson previously said that Sherwood's death was being investigated as a possible homicide.
Detectives told Harris that one of the arrested men had kicked his son in the head before he was dragged into the lake. Family members said Sherwood knew how to swim.
While Sherwood had struggled with addiction and substance abuse for nearly five years, he always visited every few days, according to Harris, who called him a “mama's boy.” She said she knew something was wrong when she didn't hear from him for almost two weeks.
“I'm waiting for him to call me,” Harris said, recalling his anxiety over the past few weeks. “This isn't like Kyle.”
In late May, she said, she tried several times to file a missing person report with the Los Angeles police, both directly and with the help of her son's treatment program. Each time, she said, she ran into a bureaucratic obstacle.
Cervantes, the LAPD spokesman, declined to comment on the family's fight to file a missing person report.
The report could have helped, Harris said.
“That's their job, to go check on them, and they didn't do that,” he said. “They failed my son.”
Despite questions about Sherwood's death, Harris is trying to find a way to celebrate her son's life. She and Knaack remembered Sherwood as the baby of the family, the one whom many in their town of Eatonville, Washington, had admired.
“He was a good boy; everyone loved him,” Harris said.
Sherwood was the only one of Harris' six children to graduate from high school, he said. A successful wrestler in high school, he went on to be a reliable union sheet metal worker, Knaack said. He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing and was a father raising his 6-year-old son with the help of Harris.
But about five years ago, he began using drugs — first cocaine, then methamphetamine and, most recently, fentanyl pills, Harris said — and struggled to stay sober, trying various treatment programs over the years.
“It's been a battle,” Knaack said.
While the family is glad arrests have been made, they want those responsible for his death to be held accountable.
“They killed him,” Knaack said. “I really hope they don't make excuses and get out of this.”
The family is unsure how they will move forward.
“You send your son there to get clean, and he has a 6-year-old waiting for his father to come back, and I have to tell him he's never coming back,” Harris said. “It's disgusting. …he has been trying to do everything he can to put his life back in order.”
Staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.
