Kyle Sherwood flew to Los Angeles in early May to begin an intensive drug treatment program. His family was hopeful it might work. The Dream Center had been well-received by friends in their hometown of Washington state, and they were optimistic that a fresh start might be just what the 28-year-old needed.
“We were hoping that with him being in another city, another state, he wouldn’t be able to leave and see his old friends,” his sister, Heather Knack, said.
But nothing went according to plan.
A few days after arriving in Los Angeles, Sherwood left the treatment program and used a borrowed phone to call home from MacArthur Park, a green and waterfront space adjacent to downtown that’s known for being a large homeless encampment. Sherwood’s mother, Dee Dee Harris, said she tried in vain to convince her youngest son to return to the treatment center. She hasn’t heard from him since.
Within weeks, Sherwood, 28, was found dead face-down in the park’s lake, authorities said. The cause of death was under investigation, according to the Los Angeles County coroner, but police said video from the park showed two men pushing Sherwood into the water.
Two people were arrested Thursday, said Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Rosario Cervantes, who declined to provide details.
It is not clear what charges the two have been arrested on, but a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman previously said Sherwood’s death was being investigated as a possible homicide.
Detectives told Harris that one of the men kicked her son in the head before dragging him into the lake, where relatives said Sherwood could swim.
Harris said Sherwood had struggled with addiction and substance abuse for about five years, but would always contact her every few days. Harris called Sherwood a “mama’s boy.” When he didn’t contact her for nearly two weeks, she realized something was wrong.
“I’m waiting for him to call me,” Harris said, recalling the anxiety of the past few weeks. “This isn’t like Kyle.”
She said that in late May, she tried multiple times, both directly and with the help of her son’s treatment program, to file a missing person’s report with the Los Angeles Police Department, but each time she ran into bureaucratic obstacles.
Cervantes, the Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, declined to comment on the family’s difficulties filing a missing person’s report.
The report could be helpful, Harris said.
“It was their job to check on him and they didn’t,” she said. “They let my son down.”
Despite the questions surrounding Sherwood’s death, Harris is looking for ways to celebrate her son’s life. She and Knack remembered Sherwood as the youngest member of their family and someone who was revered by many in their town of Eatonville, Washington.
“He was a good kid. Everybody loved him,” Harris said.
Of Harris’ six children, only Sherwood graduated from high school, she said. He was a standout wrestler in high school and later became a reliable union sheet metal worker, Knack said. He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing, and a father who raised his 6-year-old son with Harris’ help.
But about five years ago, he began turning to drugs — first cocaine, then methamphetamines and more recently fentanyl pills — and struggled to stay sober for years, despite trying several treatment programs, Harris said.
“It was a battle,” Knaack said.
The family is pleased that an arrest has been made but wants those responsible for his death to be held accountable.
“They killed him,” Knaack said, “and I really hope they don’t make excuses and get away with this.”
The family is unsure how to move forward.
“You send a kid there to recover from an addiction, and then you have a 6-year-old son waiting for his dad to come back, and then you have to tell him he’s never coming back,” Harris said. “It’s disgusting. He’s trying everything he can to get his life back together.”
Staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.