Cause of death announced for 15-year-old girl who died in San Francisco driveway

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – The cause of death has been announced for a 15-year-old Bay Point girl who died in the driveway of a stranger’s home on Lobos Street in San Francisco.

Jazmin Pellegrini ran away from her family’s Bay Point home on April 17. Her relatives searched desperately for her and alerted the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office. Just three days later, “this poor child was abandoned by the person she was with and left for dead. She could have been saved, but strangers ignored her,” her family wrote.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office released an autopsy report this week revealing Jazmin’s cause of death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. She died from a toxic combination of drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the autopsy findings.

Jazmin’s mother wants investigators to find out what happened between her daughter’s escape and her death. Jazmin had no money or cellphone when she left Bay Point. Who gave a minor child in San Francisco a lethal dose of fentanyl, cocaine and meth?

“A tragedy has taken place that is so unreal and incomprehensible, with so many unanswered questions. The truth must come to light, systematic errors must be corrected and the perpetrators punished,” wrote the girl’s mother, Marta Barany.

“Jazmin Pellegrini was a beautiful 15-year-old girl full of love, curiosity and enthusiasm,” her mother wrote. Jazmin struggled with PTSD, anxiety and bipolar disorder. When her family sought help, Jazmin suffered from alleged negligence and mistreatment by medical staff, according to Barany.

The girl was released from the psychiatric unit of a Contra Costa County hospital in Martinez on the evening of April 17. Her mother urged the hospital to keep her daughter there longer so she could be in a safe place with medical and security staff. Staff refused, Jazmin’s aunt told KRON4.

The aunt, Ametiszt Hajdu, said: “Her mother knew she was not well. She could always see it in her eyes. When they brought her home, she did not speak, did not smile. She was not well.”

During Jazmin’s stay in the county’s psychiatric hospitals over the past two years, she became addicted to medication, according to her family.

Barany wrote: “Jazmin was not a drug addict, but during her hospital stay she became dependent on substances. Neglected medical facilities administered many drugs to her. They failed to provide her with treatment beyond emergency medications, which often consisted of four emergency injections a day.”

The girl’s short life is a tragic example of the failures in the mental health care system for teenagers, relatives said. “Her family had fought with her to get her the long-term care she desperately needed, but the system never helped Jazmin,” Barany wrote.

Jazmin’s mother set up the GoFundMe page “We Want the Truth for Jazmin Pellegrini,” which is dedicated to exposing gaps in mental health care provided by hospitals, social services, and child protective services.