Austin Myers was a budding artist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, a young man with a lot of talent and many friends.
He died of what his family believes was an accidental heroin overdose Dec. 21.
He was 21.
“What will haunt me forever is why,” said his mother, Holly Myers of Wheat Ridge.
“Was there a self-destructive urge, was he just flirting with danger, was he hoping for some enlightening experience, was he self- medicating, did he do it because he broke up with his girlfriend, or was he doing it because he heard that great artists often have used drugs?”
Austin, a graduate of Wheat Ridge High School, had shown a talent for art early, the opposite of his brother, Benjamin Myers, a CU graduate who lives in Boston and is a real estate negotiator.
Ben Myers said his younger brother was good at every kind of art he took at CU – drawing, sculpture, welding, photography, wood, jewelry and even poetry.
Austin Myers’ father, Brent Myers of Denver, said he didn’t always “understand Austin’s art, but I liked it.”
In the past four years, he said, his son had become more outgoing and “was blossoming into a nice guy.”
He said his son was found dead in a Boulder home he shared with roommates.
Brent Myers, who is divorced from Holly Myers, said he believes the young man took heroin for the first time Dec. 19. But Holly Myers said Austin had told a friend several months ago he was going to try heroin and the friend warned against it.
Holly Myers was worried about her son and told him the day before he died that she would pick him up and bring him to her house. He said he was fine.
She wishes her son’s friends had warned her of the possible drug use.
“Drugs are just too available. Putting a needle into your arm is a big fat red flag. I would have dropped everything in a minute and been there,” Holly Myers said.
Austin “was a sweet, funny guy who never put anybody down. He always kept friends,” said his brother.
Brent Myers said his son “had a reckless streak” and “my yelling didn’t help curtail that. But he was basically a normal high school and college kid.”
Austin Myers was born in Denver on Sept. 10, 1985. He didn’t excel at team sports but loved to backpack, hike and snowboard, and had tried his hand at the guitar.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com.
