Local bakery to host benefit for daughter of slain Salem woman

Staff report

boardman

A local bakery will host a benefit Thursday at its Boardman location on South Avenue for the family of slain Salem woman Samantha A. Shasteen, and her daughter, Lydia, 4.

Ellen Harvischak, owner of Clarencedale Cake, where Shasteen worked, said it was something that had to be done for someone who was near and dear to her.

“We need to do something,” Harvischak said. “We wanted to do it while it was still fresh in [people’s] minds.”

One hundred percent of all purchases made Thursday at the South Avenue bakery during its usual business hours, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be donated to the fund, which will be given to the family and Lydia.

Only cash or checks will be accepted for the fund, Harvischak said.

Walt Williams, 35, of Salem went to high school with Shasteen and is still devastated.

“It’s terrible,” Willaims said. “I feel horrible for [Lydia].”

Williams, who currently lives in Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland, said he heard of Shasteen’s death via his Facebook page during his lunch break last week.

“I was worthless the rest of the day,” Williams said.

He said that when he found out of the benefit, he wanted to do whatever he could to spread the word. More information and details of Thursday’s benefit will be posted to Clarencedale Cake’s Facebook page.

Salem police charged Mason M. Feisel, 34, of Afton Avenue in Boardman with killing Shasteen, his estranged girlfriend, inside her Oak Street house in Salem last week.