Carolyn Andriano, a sufferer of sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein whose testimony was essential to placing away his confederate Ghislaine Maxwell, has died.
There was no obituary or funeral service after she handed away earlier this yr, and police in West Palm Seashore, Florida, opened an investigation into her dying. After The Every day Beast reached out for remark, police spokesman Mike Jachles instructed us that the investigation was concluding and that Carolyn died of an unintentional overdose.
The 36-year-old mother-of-five had deliberate to start out a brand new chapter in North Carolina, at a brand new home with a fire and half-acre lot with a hen coop. Carolyn and her husband, John Pitts, had bought the property simply weeks earlier than she was discovered unresponsive in a West Palm Seashore lodge room on Might 23.
Earlier than her dying, “she was ecstatic,” Carolyn’s mom, Dorothy Groenert, instructed The Every day Beast. “She was all arrange for an entire new life-style.”
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Groenert says Carolyn’s dying got here as a shock as a result of she was engaged on constructing a brand new life and texted her lately about being free of medicine and alcohol.
The best way Groenert sees it, some issues about her daughter’s overdose don’t make sense and she or he needs cops to research additional.
Jachles, nonetheless, stated that Carolyn’s case would formally be closed this week. Officers on scene took an announcement from Pitts, who instructed them that Carolyn had been utilizing medication, and Carolyn’s brother, who rushed to the lodge after Pitts texted Groenert that Carolyn had died. Pitts tried to manage CPR and “was given instructions over the cellphone with 911,” Jachles stated.
“It shouldn’t be closed,” Groenert stated of the police investigation. “I begged them, I despatched them quite a few messages. I’ve requested for them to make conferences, contact me, and to no avail.”
Now Groenert is in a authorized battle with Pitts over Carolyn’s will, which was filed in 2010 earlier than she married him and which left her property to her mom and two oldest sons. As a result of the need hadn’t been up to date, Pitts and his three youngsters with Carolyn had been disregarded of her property. Carolyn had obtained thousands and thousands from Epstein-related settlements, although probate court docket paperwork point out she had $183,000 in a checking account. The filings additionally listed unknown property because the JPMorgan and Deutsche Financial institution class motion settlements—which, as The Every day Beast reported, quantity to $290 million and $75 million, respectively, and can lead to massive payouts to victims.
Pitts didn’t return messages searching for remark. When reached by a Every day Beast reporter, he warned, “Don’t name me once more. You bought the mistaken John.”
Since Carolyn died, he’s posted tributes to her on Fb and mourned his household’s loss.
Carolyn Andriano and her mom
Courtesy of Dorothy Groenert
“you confirmed me what love actually is and i’ll always remember how massive your coronary heart is,” Pitts wrote in June, including, “i do know our souls will at all times be hooked up collectively.”
“i’ll do proper by you as a result of i do know what u actually needed in life a to provide our children the life we by no means had … i miss u a lot no phrases can say simply know i’ll give our children the perfect life that i can…”
Whereas Pitts couldn’t be reached, his sister Serena instructed The Every day Beast that Groenert’s and her household’s suggestion that Carolyn’s dying was suspicious is “ridiculous.”
“Proper now our household is grieving the lack of Carolyn and prioritizing the care of her kids. Right now we kindly admire area and privateness,” she added in a textual content.
The Every day Beast has submitted requests for info to each the health worker and police division. Whereas a trigger and method of dying hasn’t been launched, a toxicology report signifies Carolyn had methadone, fentanyl, and alprazolam (the generic title for Xanax) in her system when she died.
Lewis Nelson, professor and chair of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical Faculty’s Division of Emergency Medication and Director of the Division of Medical Toxicology, stated alprazolam and fentanyl is usually a harmful mixture, as each medication suppress respiration.
“Her fentanyl use was very latest,” stated Nelson, who just isn’t concerned in Carolyn’s case however independently reviewed her toxicology report. “My postulation is she is on methadone, takes a excessive dose, she took fentanyl, and she or he died rapidly.” The low ranges of a metabolite of fentanyl, Nelson added, recommend that Carolyn died earlier than her physique had time to metabolize the drug. Bloodwork, nonetheless, doesn’t normally paint an image of how usually somebody makes use of a substance.
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Carolyn was one in every of 4 victims to testify on the Maxwell trial in December 2021, telling the jury that the British socialite had groped her and routinely scheduled her “massages” with Epstein, who molested her as much as thrice till she was “too previous” for him at age 18.
Initially, a Manhattan federal prosecutor requested Carolyn if she’d ever been hooked on medication, and she or he replied, “Ache capsules and cocaine.” Carolyn additionally testified about her house life when she was 14 and had first visited Epstein’s Palm Seashore mansion in 2001. “I used to be allowed to do no matter I needed,” she stated, including, “As a result of my mother was an alcoholic and a drug addict.” (Requested about Carolyn’s testimony, Groenert denied this. “No, I used to be working. I used to be working to pay for my kids. I didn’t get any dietary supplements. I needed to work,” she stated. “That’s inaccurate.”)
Carolyn, who stated she dropped out in seventh grade and by no means returned to highschool, later testified that she grew to become hooked on medication whereas visiting Epstein’s lair: “Marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, something that might block out for me to go to the appointment.”
She had confided in Maxwell and Epstein about her historical past of being sexually abused as a younger little one (by a relative at age 4) and of her household’s struggles with habit. This emboldened the sick high-society couple to groom her and even try to deliver her to Epstein’s U.S. Virgin Islands compound. “I instructed him I used to be solely 15 and I couldn’t go away,” Carolyn stated of Epstein.
The prosecutor additionally requested Carolyn about her medicines, and she or he answered that she took methadone, an antidepressant, Xanax, and a drug for schizophrenia as a result of “I’m scared that my youngsters are going to get kidnapped.”
When Maxwell’s lawyer cross-examined Carolyn, he famous the Epstein sufferer compensation fund awarded her $3.25 million however had subtracted $446,000 as a result of she’d obtained that quantity in 2009 from a lawsuit towards Epstein and his assistant Sarah Kellen.
“Sure, however no cash will ever repair what’s occurred to me,” Carolyn responded.
Carolyn testified utilizing solely her first title however got here ahead to the Every day Mail after Maxwell’s conviction. Throughout this interview, she spoke of Pitts’ help.
Carolyn Andriano along with her mom and two brothers
Courtesy of Dorothy Groenert
“I had rosary beads in my palms for your entire time and my husband was within the courtroom and each time I felt like I used to be getting weak, he would give me somewhat thumbs up or I’d clench the beads,” Carolyn instructed the tabloid. “I used to be decided to have the power to have this lady put away for what she did to me and different younger girls.”
“Certain, they accused me of mendacity, however I knew that was coming and I stood as much as it as a result of I used to be telling the God’s sincere reality.”
At one other level within the interview, Carolyn instructed that Virginia Giuffre, a sufferer who allegedly recruited her into Epstein’s intercourse ring, deserved to face comparable penalties as Maxwell as a result of, she claimed, Giuffre “trafficked me right into a world of spiraling downward slopes and it has taken my husband John 12 lengthy years to get me to like myself once more.”
“I’m very pleased being a spouse and a mom and I wish to present folks how the tragedies in my life didn’t cease me,” she added. “I’m overcoming them. I’m not going to let Maxwell and Epstein break my life any extra. I’m grateful every single day once I get up.”
Within the spring earlier than the high-profile trial, Carolyn and Pitts bought a $570,000 house in Wellington, Florida. Public data present they offered it for a similar value in April of this yr and purchased their North Carolina house quickly after for $265,000. Pitts offered that house in July for $260,000.
In August, Pitts requested a court docket in Onslow County, North Carolina to vacate Carolyn’s 2010 will. The movement alleges Carolyn had “requested stated will likely be revoked.” In accordance with Pitts, the couple bought the brand new house “with the plan to presumably relocate to the realm after the conclusion of the educational faculty yr.”
The submitting added that the household visited the property “for the primary time after the acquisition and instantly decided they might not be shifting to stated residence” and “camped out” for one night time earlier than returning to Florida. They meant, the doc stated, to purchase one other house within the West Palm Seashore space. Pitts’ movement stated that he, Carolyn, and the youngsters lived in a lodge after they offered the Wellington home.
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Within the court docket document, Pitts accused Carolyn’s executor, Michael Danchuk, of falsely claiming that Carolyn was not married and had no kids after the 2010 will. He’s additionally attempting to maneuver the probate case from North Carolina to Palm Seashore County, Florida, the place Groenert and Carolyn’s oldest son filed a movement to dismiss Pitts’ petition for administration.
In accordance with Pitts’ petition for administration filed in Palm Seashore County, Carolyn “parted methods” with Danchuk “throughout her lifetime and is believed to have instructed him to revoke the Purported Will.” The doc accused Danchuk of dealing with Carolyn’s “earlier substantial settlement funds beneath unknown pretenses” and claimed he “could have obtained substantial charges or in any other case diverted funds.”
Carolyn’s property is predicted to obtain no less than two “substantial settlement payouts from Jeffrey Epstein funds within the close to future,” the petition said, “and it’s anticipated that further class-action lawsuits paid to [her] property will likely be forthcoming.”
Reached by The Every day Beast, Danchuk denied the claims in Pitts’ submitting however declined to remark at size, citing the litigation. He stated he’s a guide for a regulation agency and has identified Carolyn since she sued Epstein in 2008; hers was the primary in a string of Florida lawsuits that victims filed towards the rich sex-trafficker as he brokered a secret cope with the feds.
“I really feel extra possible that it’s his attorneys which can be telling him what to say,” Danchuk stated. “I’m truly the individual that Carolyn requested to face in for her father when she acquired married to John, so clearly, it [John’s claims] doesn’t make me very pleased. There have been no funds diverted. That’s clearly ridiculous.”
“I’m merely the administrator, executor, and I intend to pursue this as Carolyn requested me to do that a very long time in the past,” he added. “I by no means anticipated her to go away earlier than me.”
A doc from the Palm Seashore County Medical Examiner famous that cops stated that Carolyn, Pitts and their kids had been staying within the Florida lodge since Might 18. “They got here from North Carolina after they tried to relocate to that space. They returned to Palm Seashore County, as a result of their methadone clinic was not offering the quantity of methadone, they had been asking,” the doc said.
Groenert shared texts from her daughter the place she appeared to glow about her new life in North Carolina, the place she deliberate to swap spandex leggings for denims.
“It’s Jean sneakers and a T-shirt sort of woman and I like that and I simply wish to be a very good spouse to my husband as a result of me. And him are Hitched for all times,” Carolyn wrote.
Her 10-year-old son, she added, loved lighting up their new fire. “We now have a hen co-op so we’re gonna go get chickens and [he] made me by. Himself a fire hearth final night time for Mom’s Day … we did it old style and it was nice.”
Carolyn wrote that due to their proximity to the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, lots of her neighbors had been navy wives. “I take pleasure in residing a really structured lifetime of no medication or alcohol as a result of I wish to be a terrific mother and the youngsters are so pleased to be in. A brand new house,” she wrote.
Three days earlier than Carolyn died, Groenert messaged Pitts attempting to achieve her. “When Carolyn wakes up possibly ship extra however she is asleep so I don’t wanna get right into a argument ok love you,” he wrote.
“TY, it’s appreciated,” Groenert texted. “Love u guys too.”
Groenert would quickly be taught her daughter was lifeless by way of textual content message.
“What lodge are you in and the place are you the place are the youngsters I’m going to get a flight out of right here,” Groenert wrote her son-in-law on Might 23 at 8:11 a.m.
“I gotta name u again,” he replied. “Carolyn died final night time.”
A document associated to the 911 name obtained from West Palm Seashore police reveals that authorities had been contacted on Might 23 at 7:45 a.m., and so they arrived on the DoubleTree by Hilton about 10 minutes later. The doc lists the character of the decision as “lifeless individual.”
Notes from the decision reveal somebody reported Carolyn wasn’t “waking up” and “has been sick.” The individual added that they’d began CPR however stated, “She is ice chilly now.”
“Father is hysterical,” the decision doc continued, including, “Now sayig [sic] the feminine is puking.” Somebody had additionally known as again referring to “a feminine issue respiration.”
The health worker doc provides extra particulars about Carolyn’s dying, saying that the couple went to sleep round 11 p.m. on Might 22 and when the husband awoke round 7:45 a.m., after the youngsters requested for breakfast, Carolyn was bare and unresponsive in mattress. Pitts started to start out CPR and known as police.
The officer instructed the health worker that Carolyn’s purse inside the toilet contained crack pipes, a small baggie with white powdery residue, and a needle cap. “Within the rest room, beside the drug paraphernalia described above, there have been six empty small plastic containers that, in line with the husband, had been methadone in syrup that they obtained from the methadone clinic,” the health worker narrative stated.
Groenert stated that police additionally instructed her that they discovered “an unlimited quantity of vodka bottles” within the lodge room however that Carolyn had no alcohol in her system when she died.
Carolyn’s brother instructed The Every day Beast that he has questions on what he noticed on the lodge simply after emergency responders arrived—and that he’s repeatedly tried to contact the detective on the case.
Joey Andriano stated that when Carolyn and Pitts first acquired again to Florida, he and his girlfriend met them at a McDonald’s. “She was actual pleased … the happiest I ever seen her,” Joey stated of Carolyn. “She despatched me somewhat bit of cash, simply to assist, as a result of that’s how she is.”
However a day later, he tried reaching Carolyn and Pitts instructed him she wasn’t feeling nicely. Carolyn briefly answered and stated the identical.
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“I stated, ‘If she’s so sick why don’t you name the ambulance, bro? Do one thing. You gotta take her to the hospital.’ He stated, ‘Oh, no, she’s alright.’”
Throughout one other name, he stated, Carolyn’s voice was almost inaudible.
“A pair occasions I talked to her on the cellphone, she simply sounded actual out of it, like, groggy, and he was doing a lot of the speaking for her. She was by no means like that.”
Groenert says she’s unable to grieve her daughter till authorities additional examine what occurred.
She’s additionally heartbroken that Pitts and his household refuse to let her see her youthful grandkids, whom she says she cared for after Pitts quickly misplaced custody following a automobile accident.
Groenert stated she discovered by means of her legal professionals that Pitts’ sister is now caring for her grandchildren, who in latest months have been featured on the lady’s social media. “Aunts have tremendous powers!” she wrote in July. “My flip to heal the mother wound within the subsequent technology.”
In accordance with Joey, Pitts’ sibling picked up the youngsters from the lodge after police arrived and took them away. “I see her pulling out and I attempted to cease her. I went by means of the again door the place the youngsters had been, I stated, ‘Roll down the home windows.’ I used to be no less than gonna inform them bye,” Joey stated. “And he or she simply sped off.”
“Carolyn and his sister hated one another,” Groenert stated. “There was no love there.”
After Pitts was arrested over the wreck in June 2021, the court docket issued a “no contact” order along with his kids except by means of Florida’s Division of Youngsters and Households (DCF).
A police report stated that cops discovered fentanyl, cocaine, and alprazolam on him, and he instructed emergency responders he’d taken methadone and Xanax earlier within the day. His kids had been admitted to the hospital, the place workers contacted DCF due to the youngsters’s accidents and since they appeared “very unkempt.”
He was discovered responsible of possession of cocaine and fentanyl and driving beneath the affect; a prosecutor didn’t take motion on a baby neglect cost. In April 2022, the court docket docket reveals, Pitts was positioned on 12 months of probation, served 45 days in jail, obtained $2,047 in fines, and noticed his license revoked for one yr.
In the meantime, court docket data present that in 2016, Groenert was arrested on a cost of battery on a pregnant lady, whose title was redacted from a police report however who she says was Carolyn. The state lawyer finally declined to file costs.
The police report says that after the lady requested Groenert to go away the residence and dragged her belongings to the entrance garden, Groenert grabbed her arms to cease her.
Groenert stated that earlier than the incident, she and Carolyn’s older son from one other relationship had quickly moved in with Carolyn to keep away from a hurricane. There had been an escalation of points, she stated, and Pitts was “egging Carolyn on that I ought to go away.”
“When the cops acquired there, anyone needed to go to jail,” Groenert stated.
Groenert’s document additionally features a cost of possession of narcotic paraphernalia in 2004, although a prosecutor declined to pursue the case. And in 2002, she was charged with cocaine possession although her adjudication was withheld—that means she wasn’t formally convicted.
“These are previous costs,” she instructed The Every day Beast when requested about them, “and it needed to do with me serving to anyone out with their youngsters and their spouse acquired mad.”
Groenert stated she and Carolyn “had been extra like sisters.”
“We had been companions in crime,” she added. “We did lots of stuff collectively, we frolicked, went to live shows, we did every part.”
“My daughter was great,” Groenert stated. “My daughter was probably the most loving, kindhearted individual. She trusted all people. And anyone might say something destructive about anyone however my daughter: she was taught to at all times discover a optimistic.”
“No person’s giving me any solutions, and you already know what? I’m over it,” the mom added. “As a result of that is my daughter, and she or he deserves justice. She acquired to a degree the place she was turning her entire life round.”
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