43
Jackie Bacher found dead Sunday by Youngstown authorities
Photo
Bacher
Photo
Gina Burger
Photo
Deputy Mike Taylor escorts suspect Ricki D. Williams IV, 18, of Youngstown, into court during the murder case of Gina Burger in July of 2014.
By ROBERT CONNELLY
YOUNGSTOWN
The mother of a slain Austintown teen died Sunday morning in Youngstown.
Jackie Bacher, 46, was found by Youngstown police in her residence in the 2600 block of Roy Street. Bacher is the biological mother of murder victim Gina Burger, 16, of Austintown, who was found in June in a landfill in Grove City, Pa.
Youngstown authorities were called to Roy Street about 7:30 a.m. Sunday by Ashley Stiles, 24, Bacher’s daughter and Gina’s sister. The report said she was “extremely upset.”
Bacher was face down on the floor and appeared to have slid forward off a couch, and “was clearly deceased,” the report noted.
Stiles told police that Bacher “appeared all [expletive] up” the night before, about midnight, and kept dropping a lit cigarette while sitting on the couch. No drugs were found at the home by authorities.
Toxicology tests are being run and should determine her cause of death in a matter of weeks, but the report noted: “Bacher does have a history of heroin use.”
Bacher previously had a medical issue July 2 involving suspected heroin use, and Austintown authorities transported her to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where she recovered. That was called in by a neighbor in their Compass West apartments in Austintown, where Gina was killed June 23.
Austintown Detective Jeff Solic on Tuesday called the July 2 episode a medical issue, not an overdose, because there was no evidence of an overdose.
Charges were never filed against Bacher in that case — the report listed possible charges of misdemeanor possession of drugs and possessing drug-abuse instruments.
“There was no evidence to charge her with anything,” Solic explained.
That report detailed how authorities found three burnt spoons with suspected heroin residue on each, and “several hypodermic needles” in the top drawer of a nightstand in a bedroom of the Compass West apartment. There also were torn bags on top of the nightstand, that report said, and there were dog feces on the floor of the bedroom of a child living there with them.
Mahoning County Children Services has been working with Stiles since July 2, and her son was placed July 3 with other family members, executive director Randy Muth said. Muth said the agency hopes to reunify Stiles and her son.
The death penalty-level trial of Ricki D. Williams IV, 19, of Youngstown, accused in Burger’s slaying, is set to begin in March 2015.
Solic said Bacher was going to be a witness in the murder trial of Williams, but deferred further questions on that to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office. Officials with the prosecutor’s office said they do not comment on pending cases.
The prosecution has an eyewitness in the case, a woman Williams forced to help him and who witnessed the slaying, a criminal complaint detailed.
Williams, 18, of Lansdowne Boulevard, is charged with eight felonies, including two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated burglary. The death-penalty specification was given to one of the aggravated-murder charges by a grand jury indictment July 10.
Gina had gone missing from her Compass West apartment. Her body was discovered in a landfill in Grove City, Pa., a few days later. She died from a stab wound.
A criminal complaint said Williams admitted to authorities he stabbed Gina and put her body in a playpen to transport to a large trash receptacle at the apartment complex.
Gina’s father, Kevin Bacher, died of a drug overdose in 2007.
Gina originally was taken from Jackie and Kevin Bacher in Florida after the Florida Department of Children and Families investigated charges in 2000 accusing the couple of dealing drugs in the home and because the four children witnessed domestic violence. FDCF later gained custody of the four children, Gina and Stiles among them.