‘They Thought They Had Tomorrow’: Grieving Mid-South moms launch Memphis billboard campaign to fight counterfeit fentanyl epidemic

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A group of grieving mothers from Memphis and North Mississippi is turning their personal tragedies into a public warning, taking their message directly to local streets through a new billboard campaign aimed at saving lives from counterfeit drugs and illicit fentanyl.

The initiative, part of a campaign titled “They Thought They Had Tomorrow,” features the faces of local young people lost to overdose and drug poisoning. The billboards are now on display along major Memphis thoroughfares, including Poplar Avenue, Lamar Avenue, and North Cleveland Street.

On Saturday, the mothers plan to visit each site to honor their children.

The local effort follows a recent tragedy in Oxford, Mississippi, where two University of Mississippi students died of suspected drug overdoses on the same day. For these mothers, the news reopened wounds they know all too well.

“Our hearts are broken. And this is a way to mend them,” said Kelly Presley, whose son, Peyton Moore, died on February 27, 2021.

“It’s not a fast way,” added Wendi Shoffner, another leader in the new awareness campaign, “but I promise, it helps,” said Shoffner.

Presley’s son Peyton, a former Justin Bieber look-alike contest winner, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at age 16.

After undergoing intensive radiation and treatments at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, he suffered severe side effects, eventually requiring a full hip replacement at age 19.

“We never saw that he was addicted to pain medication,” Presley said. “What I know now that I didn’t know then is that Peyton was... addicted to those drugs because he had to have them to live.”

Looking for relief one night, Peyton sought out what he believed was a prescription Percocet on the street. Instead, he was given a counterfeit blue pill laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl. His toxicology report later revealed 43 nanograms of fentanyl in his system.

“From what I’ve been told, that’s enough to kill 21 people,” Presley said. “I always say that he had the most life-threatening diseases that he overcame, but fentanyl took him from me.”

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), approximately 250,000 Americans have died from fentanyl and synthetic opioid overdoses since 2021. Authorities warn that illicit fentanyl is frequently disguised as harmless-looking prescription pills or mixed into other street powders.

Other local mothers shared similar stories of deceptive illicit drugs.

Heather Marshall lost her 21-year-old daughter, Emily Johnson, and Emily’s boyfriend on August 21, 2024.

“Emily was just a baby,” Marshall said. “She had just turned 21. She didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life yet.”

Marshall said her daughter went to 3rd Street in Memphis to purchase what she believed was Xanax. “Like Emily thought she was taking a Xanax, and it was not even a Xanax. It was fentanyl and something else,” Marshall said.

Tracy Waaraniemi reported that her daughter, Valerie McClure, died on February 21, 2024.

While initial hospital screenings flagged cocaine in her system, subsequent testing confirmed that fentanyl was also present in the mix.

For Wendi Shoffner, the pain began on December 12, 2016, when she lost her son, Joshua Smith, a Memphis construction worker.

She refers to the illicit substances circulating on the streets as “monster death drugs.”

“As hard as it is for us to talk about this, I don’t want another parent to feel this,” Shoffner said, recalling her final moments with her son in the hospital. “When his heart stopped, a little tear dripped down the side of his face, and I just grabbed it and put it on my lips, and I kissed him.”

The Memphis billboard campaign is a collaborative effort with Dan’s Legacy of Love, a Michigan-based nonprofit founded by Malinda Oshida.

Oshida started the organization to honor her uncle Dan, who died at age 42 from an overdose of prescription medication that was not prescribed to him.

“The billboards came within the last year so that we can try to reach more people and, you know, basically get them to think before they act,” Oshida said. “Addiction has no boundaries. Addiction is everywhere and again, I’m here to support families.”

The advocates stress that their mission transcends politics, calling the fentanyl crisis a “red, white, and blue issue” that threatens every family.

Their collective warning to young people is uniform and direct: do not ingest any pill or substance unless it comes from a licensed pharmacy with your own name printed on the bottle.

Oshida and Dan’s Legacy of Love note that the addictive drug scene involves a variety of deadly substances, but the need to educate the community about their dangers goes on forever.

“We, as mamas, we have to take care of ourselves, but in the middle of all that, we want to educate; we want to save lives,” Shoffner said. “We don’t want another dad, another family member, another friend to go through this pain.”

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