2 Years After Courtney Heater's Death In North Carolina, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Is Joining Her Mother In Demanding Answers About What Happened
PLAINFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- This month, a Plainfield mother is marking two years since her daughter died out of state.
In that time, Debbie Heater has questioned the detective work – or lack thereof, in her opinion – from the local sheriff's department. As CBS 2's Marie Saavedra reported Wednesday night, we have learned her calls for a renewed investigation are getting new support.
Shortly after Courtney Heater's boyfriend made a frantic 911 call, an ambulance rushed to a rural North Carolina home. EMTs pronounced her dead at 4 a.m. on Feb 2, 2020.
That night will haunt her mother, Debbie, for the rest of her days.
"How could she be gone? She's 24 years old," Debbie Heater told CBS 2's Tim McNicholas last year. "She was an athlete. She was healthy."
Debbie Heater lives in Plainfield, but Courtney moved in 2018 to Columbus County, North Carolina to live with a boyfriend.
In late 2019, Courtney sent her mother photos showing her with a bruised eye, blood on her face, and other injuries. Reports from the sheriff's office and a hospital said those injuries resulted from a domestic assault.
Courtney would die at the home the couple shared months later, on Feb. 2, 2020. Her autopsy documented more abuse, including blunt force trauma, but the cause of death was accidental fentanyl and heroin overdose.
And in a recorded call with the family, that wrapped things up for the sheriff's department.
"Based on the Autopsy, there is no further investigation for a homicide," the lead detective said on the call.
"Just because someone has drugs in their system does not mean that they took it," Debbie Heater said.
When we talked to Debbie Heater in February 2021, a year after Courtney's death, as she demanded more investigation into that boyfriend and the role he or others may have played. Another year has passed, and nothing's happened.
"I have to stop this," Heater said. "I don't want to have to see another mother, daughter, or even son or father go through this.
Still, something has changed. Heater is a former volunteer with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition - and the organization is adding its voice.
"This is her child," said Bishop Tavis Grant of Rainbow PUSH. "She's a part of our family, and we believe she deserves justice."
Bishop Grant contends there are many questions about the detective work, like why the sheriff's department said it interviewed all neighbors near the scene - and yet, the one who lives just 240 feet away told us she'd never been contacted.
"We find these cases all over the country, and they're not color-specific," Bishop Grant said.
Together, Heater and Bishop Grant will ask the sheriff and North Carolina's Attorney General to reopen the investigation, with the hope Heater doesn't have to wait another year to learn more about what happened to Courtney.
"So Proud of you, Debbie. We're going to stick with you all the way," Bishop Grant told Heater.
"I feel I'm not alone anymore," Heater replied. "I've been alone for almost two years. God Bless you for helping us."
Both Heater and Grant say their ultimate hope is that North Carolina's Attorney General's office opens a special investigation, using its power to subpoena people and documents from Columbus County Sheriff's office and give all of the forensic evidence in Courtney's case a second look.
We'll let you know if that happens.
