Tyrone Woxvold: Coronial inquest into fatal overdose of 15-year-old in Richmond

A 15-year-old boy in state care had been planning to ask for help with his drug addiction the day he overdosed in Melbourne’s inner city, an inquest has heard.

Tyrone Woxvold died from a drug overdose.

Tyrone Woxvold was 15 years old when he died from a drug overdose — only meters from Melbourne’s safe injecting rooms.

His mother, Carolyn Woxvold, was the one who found his body on the bathroom floor of her one-bedroom Richmond flat in November 2019.

Emergency services arrived on the scene soon after and declared the teen’s death not suspicious.

Tyrone was a few weeks shy of his sixteenth birthday at the time of his death. He would not have been able to access the safe injecting room due to his age.

Tyrone with his mother, Carolyn.

On Tuesday, almost five years on from his death, Coroner Sarah Gebert found Tyrone had died from an unintended overdose of heroin and methamphetamine.

The inquest heard Tyrone had planned to visit a drug and alcohol worker later that day for drug assistance.

Gerbert described young people, such as Tyrone, as among “the most precious and vulnerable members in our community”.

Tyrone Woxvold was 15 when he died.

Speaking to the Herald Sun in 2019, Tyrone’s mum, Carolyn Woxvold, said her son had “lost his way” and should have received better care.

“He slipped through the cracks, he should have been monitored ­better,” she said.

“The system abandoned him. He put his trust in them and they weren’t there when he needed them,” she added.

At the time it was reported Tyrone had started year 7 at ­Westall Secondary College in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs in 2015.

He struggled with ­attendance and was soon expelled.

Tyrone, who lived with his mother and her partner, sleeping on the couch in their one-bedroom apartment, fell further into drugs.

One of the side effects of his methamphetamine use was dramatic weight loss, which helped him to “start feeling good” about himself.

Tyrone Woxvold

Ms Woxvold previously described her son as a “good boy” who “was one in a million”.

“He was adorable, he was bright, intelligent, cheeky, he had such a good heart,” she said.

Just before he died, they had been planning to book in his Learner’s driving test

A quote on his Facebook profile at the time of his death read: “Die with memories, Not dreams.”

The coroner will deliver her full findings in writing at a later date.