WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Lynn Gilkey and her husband, David, had just loaded two dozen young people they mentor on a bus for a spring break trip in March that was supposed to give the teens hope. When word came that one of the teens supposed to make the trip had died the day before, killed by his own father, the Gilkeys pressed on.

They took the teens on a tour of colleges meant to show them a future beyond drugs, discouragement, racial discrimination and other looming threats.

On April 1, a week after they returned, Lynn Gilkey's son, Ryan Marks, 26, collapsed. By afternoon, Gilkey was sedated an...