The husband of an Ohio woman who was critically injured in 2014 by a rock chucked from an overpass — in a story that earned national attention at the time — died Saturday night in an apparent suicide, police said.
Randy L. Budd, 55, was found dead at 11:04 p.m. in the Uniontown home he shared with his wife Sharon, Canton Rep reported.
He had spent the past two years caring for Sharon after she was nearly killed by a five-pound rock tossed by a teenager off an Interstate 80 overpass in Union County, Pa.
The motive for Randy Budd’s apparent suicide was not immediately clear. But the Union County district attorney said Budd was now the second victim of the tragedy from two years ago.
“They killed him like they killed her.”
The maiming of Sharon Budd led a state senator, Gene Yaw, to introduce legislation requiring fencing on new and renovated overpasses.
Since the July 2014 accident, Sharon Budd had been unable to care for herself, her family said. She needed help preparing food, taking medications and using the TV remote.
The four teens involved in the injury — Brett Lahr, Dylan Lahr, Keefer McGee and Tyler Porter — were given minimum prison sentences ranging from 11 1/2 months to 4 1/2 years. Johnson, who prosecuted the vandals-turned-criminals, did not say if he would pursue additional charges tied to the suicide.
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