Tristan Alva

Forever 22

My beautiful son, Tristan, was an amazingly creative artist, animator, sculptor, musician, singer, songwriter and person overall. He played guitar, piano & bass guitar. Tristan  graduated from Orange County School of the Arts in 2017 & was due to graduate with his bachelors degree in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts  December 2021. On July 21, 2021 the OC Coroner knocked at my door at 6:15am to deliver the news my son was pronounced deceased from a drug overdose. Our family is devastated by this loss and heartbroken beyond words. I soon discovered the name, phone number & lengthy texts, plus Venmo transactions between my son and a drug dealer, via my sons cell phone…. and I learned the difficult reality that the Costa Mesa police would NOT do an investigation and get this murderer off the streets. This dealer preyed upon Tristan and sold him drugs that ended his life. There was fentanyl in the toxicology report and still, this drug dealer was free to kill more people. It is my hope that laws will change so lives can be saved! My son did NOT plan to die that night.
In October 2021, I learned that my sons dealer died from a drug over dose himself. And although he can no longer harm another soul, I am passionate about doing what ever I can to get the current  laws changed. No other parent should be have to go through the pain I experienced- the fear there would NEVER be justice for a child’s death is absolutely gut wrenching.