Authorities investigating Franklin Park man's death at recovery center

FRANKLIN PARK - Authorities are investigating the death of an aspiring rapper at a Troy, New York, recovery center, according to a Times Union article. 

Raolik Walls, 27, of Franklin Park, who struggled with drug addiction, checked into Hudson Mohawk Recovery Center's Supportive Living for Men on Nov. 30, 2017. Four days after checking in, his family never heard from him, according to the article. 

On Dec. 9, his aunt visited the center to see him in person and was told he had packed all his stuff and left five days earlier, his mom, Yvonne Ketter-Walls, told the Times Union. His family and friends began asking around town for him. On Jan. 11, a pest control worker entered his room at the Hudson Mohawk center and found Wall's badly decomposed body on the bed, the article says.

Walls, a father, decided last spring that he was ready to get clean, according to the article. His extended family in Schenectady helped him enroll at the St. Peter's Addiction Recovery Center in Troy to detox, then got him into a halfway house in Troy, and finally into supportive living at the Hudson Mohawk center, the article said.  

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The incident is under investigation by the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, as first reported this week by television station WRGB. The state agency investigates reports of abuse and neglect at state-operated, certified or licensed facilities. Hudson Mohawk Recovery Center, though privately run, is certified through the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), according to the article. 

OASAS told the Times Union on Friday it was "cooperating fully" with the investigation, and has been monitoring the program since they were notified of Walls' death, including conducting unannounced site visits. Due to patient confidentiality laws, no futher details were leased, OASAS spokesman Evan Frost told the publication. 

A medical examiner informed the family this month that Walls likely died of a cardiac arrhythmia the night of Dec. 3, and did not find any drugs in his system beyond legal prescriptions, his mother said in the article. 

A source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to the Times Union on Friday that the case is also under investigation by the Office of the Inspector General, which investigates Medicaid fraud, corruption, criminal activity and conflicts of interest, among other things.

In the article, Ketter-Walls said her family met this winter with a local Department of Social Services employee, who said they were surprised to hear Walls had died since the center was still receiving state reimbursement for his stay into the month of February — nearly two months after he died.

Staff Writer Susan Loyer: 732-565-7243; sloyer@gannettnj.com