Travis Alexander was a 29 year old man, who towards the end of his life had struggled with addiction and homelessness. On February 25th 2022 he was tragically found at a hotel in El Paso Texas, passed away. He has a wife, a 9 year old daughter, 4 sisters and 2 brothers. Countless cousins, aunts, uncles and friends who were all unaware of his passing. 

 Sadly, due to the lack of care or effort given to Travis by the El Paso Texas investigators to find his loved ones, our family would spend nearly a year looking for Travis, waiting to hear from him again. It was not until Tuesday, November 29th 2022 that I found him by pure chance on a website called namus.gov when looking into starting the process to file a missing persons report. Nearly a year after his passing. Being his legal wife, and our marriage being public record, I was in shock that I had not been contacted.

When calling around to try to locate and obtain his remains I was informed that after only 33 days of “searching” for his next of kin, he was cremated and sent to a city cemetery where other unclaimed and lost individuals are buried. I was told the cost to exhume him alone would be roughly $900. If they were even able to locate him. 

It is my belief that Travis was quickly and unjustly disposed of, with little to no effort of reuniting him with his loved ones due to his cause of death and his record. The dehumanization of individuals who struggle with addiction is an ever growing issue in our society, and it is observed that people who are found suffering from the uses of addiction do not receive the same help, compassion, human decency, resources, or even medical treatment in many cases across the country. It is my belief this had a direct impact on the search to find his next of kin or power of executor, and what happened to Travis's body thereafter. Travis Alexander has a family and deserves to be put to rest where he would have wanted, with people who love him and cherish his memory.

I am requesting that his remains, are exhumed and sent to our family and that the fees for this process are waived or covered because we were denied any choices of what would have happen to Travis's body or remains. That accountability is taken in the horrendous mistreatment and judgment of someone who was once a living human being with a family. Retrieving his ashes is paramount to our family's ability to grieve and piece ourselves together again. So we may honor his memory by laying his remains to rest the way he would have wished. Surrounded by his loved ones.

The dehumanizing of addicts needs to stop, they deserve the same effort and care as everyone else. My hope is that not only will Travis be returned home, but that those in charge of care given to anyone who has passed… will treat individuals with the same care as they would expect for their own loved ones. El Paso Texas has to stop discarding addicts as if they were never loved.