TROY — It's been one year since Raolik Walls died while staying at a Troy facility for men recovering from addiction, and his family is still waiting on answers.

They don't know how the 27-year-old died. An autopsy report was inconclusive.

They don't know why it took 38 days for someone at the Hudson Mohawk Recovery Center to find his body. It was on his bed, in the room he'd been assigned at check-in.

And they don't know why a staff member told his aunt, who called Dec. 9 concerned that family hadn't heard from him, that Walls had packed his things and left five days earlier. He hadn't. His body was still there, on his bed, decomposing.

"It's hard not having answers," said Yvonne Ketter-Walls, the man's mother. "Not even answers, actually, but responsibility. That's been the tough thing for me. I'm not looking for all kinds of heads to roll. I just want someone to say, we messed up, we're responsible, this is how we've changed things."

Walls was 27 when he checked into the supportive living center on Nov. 30, 2017. A young father and aspiring rapper, he had sought help for addictions to marijuana and MDMA at a detox program in Troy, followed by a rehabilitation program. His last stop was Hudson Mohawk Recovery Center's Supportive Living program, a type of housing meant to transition men new to recovery to a more independent lifestyle.

He was keeping touch with family all the while, so when they didn't hear from him in December, his aunt, who lived in Schenectady, drove out to the facility and asked to see him. That's when she was told he had left several days earlier.

A frantic search for Walls began. It ended more than one month later on Jan. 11, 2018, when a pest control worker entered his room at Hudson Mohawk to find a badly decomposed body on the bed.

An autopsy concluded Walls' heart had stopped, probably sometime in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 2017. But the cause was inconclusive — hampered, most likely, by the advanced stage of his body's decomposition at the time of the exam. A toxicology screening detected normal levels of gabapentin and hydroxyzine in his system, legal prescriptions he was on at the time of his death.

"We don't believe anyone at the facility had anything to do with his death," Ketter-Walls said. "It's the negligence afterward that we're worried about. Someone shouldn't be laying around dead for 38 days without you knowing."

That also appears to be the conclusion of the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs — a state agency that investigates reports of abuse and neglect at state-operated, certified and licensed facilities.

An agency spokeswoman would only tell the Times Union that its investigation into Walls' death is "open and active." But according to emails Ketter-Walls shared with the Times Union, Deanne Newman, an investigator assigned to the case, told the mother in an email on May 31 that she doesn't believe anyone's actions resulted in her son's death, nor had she found evidence of that. She did, however, uncover "several systemic concerns," she wrote.

"I still feel like I just do not know the entire story and I don't believe I ever will," Newman wrote. "What I do know is that the care provided to Raolik during his stay was not adequate or appropriate."

At the time of that email, Newman was nearly finished with her investigation and said she was in the process of writing up her report, which would reflect "several concerns" she had with Hudson Mohawk. In June, however, in an email she told Ketter-Walls the investigation had been reopened.

"It was decided we are going to dig a little more into the case," Newman stated in an email.

On Nov. 27, she told Ketter-Walls the case was pending review by the agency's general counsel and that "letters" would go out in two to three weeks.

Several top leaders at Hudson Mohawk Recovery Center resigned in the aftermath of Walls' death and discovery.

Neil Kelleher, the president of the board, stepped down. So did Thomas Bendon, executive director of the center. It's unclear whether their departures were connected to the Raolik Walls case.

Kelleher said he resigned because he believed the agency "would stand a better chance of maintaining a positive relationship with (the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services) if it had new leadership."

Attempts to reach Bendon were unsuccessful.

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On Monday, the new board President, Edward Breen, issued this statement: "Over the past several months, while we grappled with the sadness of this tragedy, our staff has cooperated fully with the Justice Center throughout its investigation. We will continue to provide the highest-quality treatment and recovery services possible and continue our critical mission of helping Capital Region residents who suffer from substance use disorders."

OASAS, which certifies, reviews and inspects private facilities like and including Hudson Mohawk, said Monday that it has cooperated fully with the Justice Center investigation and has been monitoring the program ever since with periodic reviews and site visits.

"Since this is an active investigation, we cannot comment further on the specific details or findings," a spokesman said Monday.

The Times Union submitted a request to the agency in June under the Freedom of Information Law, seeking information about the center's inspection reports, history of complaints and disciplinary write-ups. The agency, on five occasions, has said it needs more time to fulfill the request.

In the meantime, Ketter-Walls planned to light a candle at midnight Monday to honor her son's memory, and keep it lit for one hour every day until Jan. 11, the anniversary of when he was found.

She visits his grave in Colonia, N.J., almost every week. And she does her best to keep his memory alive for Zaylii, his 4-year-old daughter.

"We try to think about how much he loved life," she said. "He was a happy person, a laid-back person. He wouldn't want us crying all the time. He'd want us to be out enjoying life."