For the first time, Krystina Shuttleworth will be celebrating Christmas with her two children in a home of their own, and she will be doing it with a clear head, free of the addiction that nearly killed her.
For Shuttleworth, 28 years old and a native of Aiken, life came to an abrupt halt in 2003 when her mother, Lisa Shuttleworth, disappeared.
“I was just starting the first month or so of ninth grade when she disappeared, and no one could tell us why or what was happening. My mom was there with me one day and the next day she was gone,” Shuttleworth said.
Lisa Shuttleworth has never been found. The case is still active in Aiken, and recently, NBC National News aired a feature story on the 19th anniversary of her disappearance.
For Krystina Shuttleworth, who was placed in the custody of her grandparents, any hope that her mom would reappear began to fade over time, and expectation turned to grief. Despite having loving grandparents who provided a stable home, Shuttleworth says that she found it impossible to cope and turned to drinking alcohol to fill the void.
“It wasn’t something that happened all at once. I was just drinking a little here and there, and then it kinda turned into an everyday thing,” Shuttleworth said.
After a while, as she grew into a young woman, the alcohol was no longer enough to dampen the pain, and she tried meth, said Shuttleworth.
By the time Shuttleworth was in her early 20s, she was headed for full-on addiction, needing uppers mixed with alcohol to function and downers to sleep.
Shuttleworth’s grandparents, Jerry and Lorraine Mabrey, began to notice the change in her behavior and sought help. Shuttleworth eventually ended up in rehab, and that would become a pattern over the following years.
Shuttleworth said that she found ways to hide the alcohol and drugs, but eventually, she would be found out, triggering another stint in rehab.
“All of the people at the Charleston Center knew me on a first name basis. I would go through the program, get out and turn right back to the alcohol and drugs,” Shuttleworth said.
Losing custody of her first born child did nothing to change her behavior, Shuttleworth said.
Shuttleworth’s grandparents weren’t the only ones to notice the change. Shuttleworth’s cousin, Shayna Mabrey, saw her childhood hero wither away before her very eyes.
“I always looked up to Krystina. I wanted to be just like her, but then she changed. She just wasn’t the same person anymore, and we all just felt helpless,” Mabrey said. “After a while, I just didn’t want to be around her.”
During pregnancy and upon the birth of her second child, Shuttleworth says that she tried to remain sober, but once again fell into the same cycle.
“You see people that can drink at night and be able to get back up the next morning, and you think ‘I can do that,’ only I couldn’t. Once I had a drink, I was back into all of it. I just could not stop,” Shuttleworth said.
Shuttleworth said her health began to diminish in other ways as alcohol mixed with drugs began seriously to affect her internal organs.
Jerry and Lorraine Mabrey’s health diminished, too, with Lorraine being diagnosed with advanced dementia and Jerry with terminal cancer. Shuttleworth says that she tried to balance taking care of her child and her ailing grandfather while still in the throes of addiction.
In 2020, Shuttleworth fell asleep at the drive through window of a pharmacy while picking up her grandfather’s medicine. She was arrested for DUI and possession of Xanax.
Jerry Mabrey passed away not long after, and the funeral happened to fall on her court date. When Shuttleworth went to the court to explain her absence, she was promptly arrested and spent 57 days in jail.
Krystina Shuttleworth had lost her mother, her grandfather and custody of her children. The rest of her family wanted nothing to do with her.
Shuttleworth had lost everything.
At first, Shuttleworth said she was determined to go home from jail and kill the pain for good by drinking herself to death, but the images of her two daughters kept popping into her mind. She couldn’t bring herself to commit a final act that would deprive her kids of their mother as she had been so many years before.
This time, the choice to go to rehab was Shuttleworth’s choice, and this time she had a plan on how she would finally kick off her demons: she was going to become a mommy.
Shuttleworth has been sober for almost two years, and she says every day is a fresh new start for her and her kids. The memory of addiction is becoming just that, a memory.
She said she wanted to tell her story so her life and her choices can be a warning sign to others who have lost the ability to cope due to circumstances beyond their control.
“I wasn’t raised to be an addict. My grandparents loved me, and they tried to help me. I didn’t mean to become an addict, but it happened. It happened slowly. If it could happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” Shuttleworth said.
