Family talks about a life cut short by heroin addiction

YOUNGSTOWN — David Fox meant to make it to the funeral home to pay his respects to his friend Donny LoGiudice, the 28-year-old Boardman man who died April 2 of a heroin overdose.

David never showed up.

Hours after the calling hours ended April 11, David, too, was dead from an overdose.

Like Donny’s parents, Donald and Lorie LoGiudice, David’s family wrote in his obituary the reason for his death: “David’s life came to unexpected end on Saturday, April 11, 2015. He had an ongoing disease of addiction that took him from us and this world too soon.”

Woven throughout the obituary that paints a picture of an intelligent man who served in the Navy and was father to a son who was 10 at the time of David’s death, are traces of the disease that killed him: “He was an amazing man whose potential was cut short due to this epidemic that strengthens every day. His disease of addiction did not define who he was deep inside. ... He was a beautiful soul,” his family wrote.

His loved ones – mother, Rebecca Fox, of Youngstown; father and stepmother, Robert Fox and Linda Dauber, of Austintown; and former girlfriend, Stefany Nussbaumer, of Struthers – shared David’s story with The Vindicator in hopes that it would raise awareness about drug addiction in the Mahoning Valley community.

For the complete story, read Sunday's Vindicator and Vindy.com