Woman killed while helping friend

Staff report

EAST LIVERPOOL

Salem Police Chief Robert Floor said Thursday that the department’s only contact ever with Andrea B. Foster, 22, of Fifth Street, was to let her back into her vehicle after she locked herself out.

Foster was fatally shot in East Liverpool at 2:38 a.m. Wednesday when she tried to help a friend.

She was at 1126 Avondale St. when Steven J. Youngblood, 25, of Liberty, used a pistol to shoot her and Rachael Wilcox, also 22, before walking a block and fatally shooting himself.

Terry Faulkner, the acting East Liverpool police chief, said Youngblood was Wilcox’s estranged boyfriend, and they had a confrontation on the front porch of the residence. Foster, a friend of Wilcox’s, attempted to intervene and was shot. Wilcox tried to run into the house and was shot.

East Liverpool police said that they believe Wilcox was in critical condition in an unidentified hospital in Pittsburgh.

The preliminary police investigation indicated it was a case of murder-suicide. The Columbiana County coroner’s office has not ruled on the case.

Funeral arrangements for Foster are pending at the Dawson Funeral Home.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court records state that Youngblood, who was then residing in Youngstown, was charged with trafficking in drugs in December 2003. He eventually plead guilty to a fifth-degree felony charge of trafficking in drugs and was sentenced to six months in prison.