Struthers community remembers slain 23-year-old

By EMMALEE C. TORISK

etorisk@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

Even after listening to others’ memories, a prayer and a few verses of “Amazing Grace,” Anthony Anderson paused for just a few more moments, braving the cold and wind, to remember Justin Slaven, one of the nicest kids ever to have attended Struthers High School.

“He was always smiling. I’d never seen him angry or sad,” said Anderson, who graduated in 2010, a year after Slaven. “It’s a sad day in Struthers for everybody. We lost a really great kid.”

More than 100 — including family members and friends, former teachers and community members — gathered at the high school for a vigil Sunday night in Slaven’s memory, with many expressing their shock over his death last week. Encircling the school’s flagpole were a parade of candles, photographs, and handmade signs reading, “Once a Wildcat, Always a Wildcat” and “We Will Never Forget You, Justin!”

Slaven, 23, was found dead of a gunshot wound in the basement of his 433 Seventh St. residence late Thursday. His mother, 44-year-old Leslie Slaven, also was found, wounded and unconscious. She remains in critical condition at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.

Police are calling the incident an apparent murder-suicide attempt.

Just hours after learning of Slaven’s death, several members of his graduating class knew they had to do something, said Nina DePietro, one of the vigil’s organizers. She added that Slaven was a “wonderful” person, a person for whom everyone is better off for having known, and that the Struthers community can always be counted upon to band together when necessary.

“It’s sad to see something like this happen to one of our own,” DePietro said.

Debra Mitchell of Struthers — who’d known Slaven, “a good-hearted person,” since he was in kindergarten — shared DePietro’s sentiments, explaining that the strong turnout for the vigil didn’t surprise her at all. Her heart goes out to his family, and in particular, his father, Robert Slaven — a “tremendous man,” she said.

Not long after hearing the news she thought was a dream, LeeAnn Jannone of Struthers, a former neighbor of the Slavens’, started an online fundraiser to help pay for funeral expenses. She set her initial goal at $2,000, but doubted if she’d be able to reach even $1,000.

As of Sunday night, however, donors had raised almost $3,000 in a little more than 24 hours, with an anonymous donor even agreeing to match the final amount collected. All money will go toward those expenses and to Robert Slaven, a man for whom his son was “his life,” Jannone said. To donate, visit http://www.gofundme.com/7q9huo.

“I know Struthers has a big heart and that Struthers people stick together,” Jannone said. “Everybody tries to pull together to make a tragedy into something better.”

The overwhelming response from the community simply “shows how much [Slaven will] be missed,” added Laurie Serenko, a former Struthers City Schools intervention specialist who worked closely with Slaven from kindergarten through the fourth grade.

“I just hope that he’s in peace,” Serenko said of Slaven, whom she described as persistent even while dealing with a host of cognitive delays and physical limitations.

And Jimmy Sutman — director of Iron and String Life Enhancement Inc., which provides services for individuals with developmental disabilities — said though Slaven had disabilities, they were “unique.” Slaven, a client of the Purple Cat, might’ve had delays in many areas, Sutman said, but parts of “his brain were stronger” and “better than the rest of ours.”

“He understood you have to be nice to folks,” Sutman said. “A lot of people can take a lesson from that.”