Dailey’s death under investigation

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The cause of death of a recovery center leader is still unclear.

Tom Dailey, a co-founder of First Step Recovery in Warren and the executive director for Braking Point Recovery in Columbus, was found dead Saturday morning in a hotel room at the Econo Lodge on Youngstown Road.

Though a police report says they found dried blood spatter on Dailey’s shirt and dried blood around his nose, as well as blood spatter on the side of the bed, “there’s nothing that says homicide with the naked eye,” Capt. Rob Massucci of the Warren Police Department said Monday.

There is also a “lack of evidence” that would suggest Dailey, a recovering substance abuser, had overdosed on drugs, Massucci said. Dailey also was not under a doctor’s care.

Without a clear answer to what killed Dailey, 46, police brought in detectives and a crime scene investigator to gather evidence in the event that the coroner’s office determines that foul play was involved.

An autopsy is planned for today or Wednesday, the coroner’s office said.

Dailey left First Recovery in 2015. Most recently he was executive director at the Braking Point Recovery Center in Columbus. Braking Point was founded in Austintown by Ryan Sheridan, who could not be reached to comment. Dailey’s address is Lewis Center, Ohio, just north of Columbus.

Dailey was found on his back next to the bed and not breathing.

When ambulance workers arrived, they said he was deceased.

A motel employee said a woman was with Dailey when he checked into the motel.

She said she saw Dailey walking back and forth in the hallway near his room at 2 a.m., and he asked the employee about the nearest ATM machine.

Dailey later spoke with another motel guest and left the motel with the man. Meanwhile, the woman remained behind and allowed a male into a door to the motel.

The employee told the male and another male attempting to come inside that they had to leave.

As they were leaving, Dailey and the other motel guest were returning through another entrance, police said.

The last time the motel employee saw Dailey on surveillance video was about 4 a.m., she said.

In 2015, as Dailey helped establish First Step Recovery, the first Trumbull County detox facility, he was in the Trumbull County Drug Court program, according to county common pleas court records.

Drug court allows a person facing a felony charge that is related to a substance-abuse problem to participate in weekly counseling sessions at the county courthouse. If the person completes the program successfully, he or she can have is or her criminal charges dismissed.

Dailey was indicted Aug. 6, 2014, on felony charges of theft and misuse of credit cards. They were dismissed when he completed drug court on Sept. 27, 2016. He was living on Greenmont Street Northeast at the time.

Darryl Rodgers, county drug court administrator, said drug court personnel knew Dailey was involved in creating First Step, but they treated him the same way as any other person in the program.

When Rodgers learned that Dailey had died, Rodgers said he was “shocked.” Rodgers said he remembers that Dailey was highly motivated and “very much a go-getter” as far as pursuing his goals for the detox center.

“We wanted him to use that same motivation” in his participation in drug court, Rodgers said.

It’s not uncommon for people dealing with substance abuse to say they want to help others with their substance abuse, like Dailey did.

“My experience over the past 25 years is that many have said that along the journey, but few have been able to make that step,” Rodgers said.

He said there is a lot of stress associated with helping others with their addictions.