LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- After the tragic fentanyl overdose of her 3-year-old son, a Louisville mother is advocating for justice and change.
At Green Meadows Cemetery, Green-Winters visits her son's grave several times a week. On a recent visit, she added birthday balloons to the already decorated site.
"He was very intelligent," Ashley Green-Winters, the mother of Cassius Ballanger, said, adding that her son was "just a bundle of joy."
Cassius, known as "Baby Cash," would have turned 6 years old last week. Now, he's "forever 3," his mother said.
"Life moves on when somebody dies, but the person whose child it was — our life stands still," Green-Winters said. "My end goal is to make sure he's not forgotten and he changes the world."
Cassius, known as "Baby Cash," would have turned 6 years old last week. Now, he's "forever 3," his mother said.
Green-Winters said the toddler's father called her saying Cash was unresponsive after a stay at his house. At first, the family thought he died of natural causes.
"Come July of that year, that's when investigators called me and said it was from fentanyl poisoning," she said.
Green-Winters shared her son's autopsy report, which lists the cause of death as "acute fentanyl intoxication."
"Knowing that my baby came in contact with that and then finding out also the case was going to be hard to prove — I couldn't sit back and not do nothing knowing he saved me from addiction only to die from someone else's addiction," she said. "It ignited a fire in me where I started advocating."
Green-Winters said she's been sober for six years and stopped using drugs when she got pregnant with Cash. Now, she's on a mission to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.
"My baby mattered," she said. "I'm going for a law. It's going to be called the CASH Act — Children Against Substance Harm Act — where everyone in the house is investigated, prosecuted and held accountable when a child dies in their care."
Cash's father, Jeffrey Ballanger also wants justice for his son. He said he feels responsible and made a bad judgment call when he let a homeless woman and her kids stay in his home and wonders if she brought drugs into the home. He said she was staying in the upstairs of his house.
He said he had about a gram of cocaine in the home, but it was on top of a cabinet. Other adults were also at the house at the time, he said, and he' questioning why all the adults in the home weren't drug tested by police for the investigation.
No one has been arrested.
"LMPD Homicide is continuing its on-going overdose death investigation of the 3-year-old Cash Ballanger that occurred April of 2023," the Louisville Metro Police Department said in a written statement. "The case is still open and active. Anyone with additional information that may give more clarity can call our anonymous tip line at (502) 574-LMPD."
Green-Winters now wears a T-shirt covered in pictures of children — all victims of fentanyl overdoses — as a reminder of the growing crisis.
"These are all babies who have passed away from fentanyl," she said. "Some are receiving justice. Some aren't."
She also had a message for whoever may know what happened to her son.
"I forgive you," she said. "But I do want you to be held accountable and I want you to hold yourself accountable to give my baby justice."
