Centreville family advocates for GI bill amendment after son's fentanyl tragedy

CENTREVILLE, Va. - A family in Fairfax County is warning others of the dangers of fentanyl after their 18-year-old son’s death. 

They’re also struggling to make sure his education benefits can go to help another student.

Cayden Foster was halfway through his senior year at Centreville High School when he died from accidental fentanyl poisoning.

It’s taken his family nearly a year to speak, but his parents reached out to FOX 5 in hopes of making a difference. 

Centreville family advocates for GI bill amendment after son's fentanyl tragedy

On January 30, 2023, all was well with the Foster family. 

They sat down to eat dinner together and made plans to visit colleges.

As they settled in for the night, Cayden went to his room to play video games.

"I distinctly remember hearing his laugh that night too," said his father, Sean Foster. "Anybody that knew Cayden loved his laugh."

"Around 10 o'clock we went to say goodnight to him. I’ll never forget the last words I heard from him were ‘I love you, too.’"     

Unbeknownst to them, the 18-year-old soccer star took what he thought was Percocet that evening.

The next morning, when his mother went to wake him for school, he was dead.

"I just knew that something was not ok and when I touched his shoulder, I just noticed he was too cold, wasn’t normal, and I knew that he was not with us anymore," his mother Afrodita Foster recalled. "I had no idea what happened, I was in shock I didn’t know what happened."

Police told the Fosters the pill Cayden took had only one active ingredient in it, fentanyl.

"we’ve lost our only child. Your children are your future so our future is gone. We have no purpose," said his mother.

Police told the Foster family they know who gave their son the pills and while they wait for his case to play out in federal court, they’re turning that pain into a goal.

His father, who served 27 years in the army, transferred his 9/11 GI Bill to Cayden to send him to college.

But after his death, those funds have become essentially useless.

Centreville family advocates for GI bill amendment after son's fentanyl tragedy

"As of Jan. 30, it was as good as spent," his father said. 

"The only two people who can use the benefits are the two of us and neither one of us have any interest in that. When I asked both the VA and the Army is there anything else I can do with this? I was very quickly told no," he added.

The Fosters are now working on a proposal to Congress for a change to the bill that would allow the transfer of the benefit in limited circumstances.

"It’s wasteful to have college money, have the money that was appropriated for the purpose of sending someone to college debt-free but then not be able to use it for its intended purpose. They told me it was my benefit, but now I can only use it for a limited purpose," Sean Foster explained.

Their proposal is still in the early stages, but the family says this amendment would be Cayden’s legacy.

"It would mean one thing wasn’t completely futile. There’s not anything left," his father said. "I didn’t really appreciate how much we had planned and built our entire futures on his future until all of a sudden it was gone. Any little thing we can do to leave some sort of legacy is better than nothing."

The Fosters have been in touch with veteran organizations and are hoping to get the attention of local lawmakers to help push this proposal along.