A grieving Colorado family is desperately looking for answers after their beloved son and brother was found dead in a hospital bathroom two weeks after he vanished shortly after discharge. 

Ryan Edelen was taken to HCA HealthONE Aurora on the morning of August 7, 2025, after being found unresponsive and without a pulse near the Cherry Creek Trail in Denver, according to 9News.

Edelen arrived at the hospital around 10am once emergency medical services had already administered naloxone, which is used to reverse opioid overdoses.

He was 'feeling well and ready for discharge' by 12.20pm, per medical notes cited by the outlet, and discharged from the emergency room less than 15 minutes later without a prescription.

Shortly after leaving, Edelen went into a single-occupancy public bathroom near a nurses' lounge and toward the hospital exit only to never come out again.

His body was found in the same locked bathroom on August 21 in a 'moderate state of decomposition,' according to an autopsy report.

'This is not acceptable,' Stacy Livingston, his sister, told the outlet. 'It wouldn't be acceptable if it happened to a dog.'

Investigators were told cleaning staff knocked on the bathroom, which is located in a busy area of the hospital, multiple times but moved on because they thought someone was using it.

A bystander initially started CPR on Edelen after he was found unresponsive, according to medical notes reviewed by the outlet.

He was also given 8mg of intranasal naloxone and eventually became responsive, though 'without much response,' before being taken to the hospital.

A physician wrote in hospital records that what happened to Edelen would need further evaluation and monitoring.

'The risk of benzodiazepine withdrawal seizures or status epilepticus is significant without appropriate management,' the physician wrote, per the outlet.

Doctors thought he could have suffered a seizure, benzodiazepine withdrawal, opioid overdose or cardiac arrhythmia.

Edelen was nonetheless discharged and allowed to leave, which he did shortly before 12.40pm.

He then entered the bathroom where he died, which is next to a staff restroom and across the hallway from the emergency room administration suite, per the outlet.

The Arapahoe County Coroner's Office said Edelen's death was due to 'mixed drug (methamphetamine and methadone) toxicity.'

Drugs were not included in the belongings collected with Edelen's body or found in the bathroom, according to investigative records reviewed by the outlet.

'I think that when you love someone with addiction, you're always kind of prepared for something,' Livingston told the outlet.

'But then you're never prepared,' she added.

Edelen's mother, Jan, said her son 'had some real tough times, but [was] still a good soul.'

'You realize that it's very possible, but then you think that it's not really going to happen,' Jan said.

She said she found out about her son's death when told by police officers at her home in Texas.

Edelen's family has struggled to understand for the past year how no one could have found him during those two weeks when he was locked in the bathroom.

'That could have been a woman in labor,' Livingston told the outlet. 'That could have been a man going to the bathroom and having a heart attack.'

The family has also questioned how long Edelen was in the hospital for, as the American College of Emergency Physicians recommends that patients who receive naloxone are monitored for at least four hours afterwards. 

Naloxone can wear off before the opioid, causing overdose symptoms to return.

Less than four hours went by between Edelen being found on the trail around 9.01am and his hospital discharge. 

Investigators were told that cleaning duties rotated for staff, and that there was no written log keeping track of when the bathroom was checked.

The hospital told the outlet: 'We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life, and our thoughts are with the individual's family and loved ones.

'We fully assisted the Aurora Police Department during its investigation last year, and we are committed to providing a safe environment for everyone who enters our hospital.'

Livingston recalled Edelen on Facebook as 'handsome, talented, complicated, and somehow able to make just about anyone feel like the most interesting person in the room.'

'He had a soft spot for the underdog, perhaps because he understood what it felt like to be one,' she wrote on Facebook.

Livingston acknowledged that her brother 'struggled with addiction' and that there were 'periods of closeness and periods of distance.'

'For more than a year, my family has been trying to make sense of something that still seems impossible,' she continued.

The Daily Mail has reached out to HCA HealthONE Aurora and Edelen's family for further comment.