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Youngstown family looks for closure in unsolved arson case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
As she layed her son to rest in June of 1993, a man told Jane Popa it should have been his funeral.
David Popa, 37, was killed in a firebombing at a Sunshine Avenue home on the East Side on June 1, 1993. The case is still open.
Police said Popa was sleeping in a house where someone was growing marijuana plants in the basement, and that was the likely reason for the firebombing.
A person who was living there told Jane, “They weren’t after David. They were after me.”
Jane, her husband, Charles Julius Popa Sr., and her other son and David’s older brother, Chuck Popa, gathered in their Liberty home to remember David. All three said they hope that someday the person responsible for David’s death can be found. It was Jane, however, who did most of the talking. Tearing up, she said, “It took me a long time to get over his death. It just bothered me that it happened to him.”
David also left behind a younger sister, Susan.
Jane said her son constantly struggled with drugs after his graduation from Liberty High School – especially marijuana – and the one good thing about his death is that he was free from that lifestyle forever.
“Once he passed, we thought, ‘God almighty, he’s out of trouble now,” Jane Popa said. “We know where he is. Before, we never knew.”
After high school, her son worked for a time but they did not see much of him unless he stopped at their home to take a shower, Jane said. When asked what her son was like, she said he was good until drugs began to take control of him.
“He was pretty good until he got into marijuana, and when he got into marijuana, he was pretty nasty,” Jane said.
After high school, David served in the U.S. Air Force for a short time refueling jets and won a commendation for his role in staving off a fire during a fueling mishap.
Reports said he was found in the bedroom of a home at 828 Sunshine Ave. that caught on fire from a firebomb. When firefighters arrived, they found flames shooting up to a bedroom window. They managed to get to Popa right away, but attempts to revive him failed. He suffered from smoke inhalation and also had burns on his arms and hands. He had been living in the home for about six months.
Two other people in the house were treated for burns. Witnesses told investigators they heard one or two crashing noises, but no one saw the person who tossed the firebomb.
The arson investigator on the case, former fire department battalion Chief Joe Durkin, could not be found to comment.
Jane said investigators told her at the time they would never drop the case, and she was heartened by that, but she added she has had no contact with them since shortly after her son’s death.
“We never heard a thing,” she said.
Jane said she was told by investigators that whoever threw the firebomb was a rival of the man who was growing the marijuana in the basement.
As a young child, David liked basketball and liked to ride his bicycle, his mother said. In 1972, he was Cadet of the Year in the Civil Air Patrol, Youngstown Squadron 30.
“He was a good kid when he was young,” she said.
His brother said that changed when he started hanging around the wrong crowd.
“It was the people he hung around with,” Chuck Popa said.
The family recalled a friend of David’s who lived on Fifth Avenue dying from a drug overdose, but that did not stop him from being around the people who used drugs.
Although they hope for an arrest, the family said they know it will be difficult.
“I doubt if they would find somebody who threw that firebomb,” Chuck Popa said.
Anyone with information can call the Youngstown Police Detective Bureau at 330 742-8911.