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Friends Shocked by Randy Budd’s Death

UNION COUNTY — The husband of the woman seriously hurt when a rock was thrown on her car from an Interstate 80 overpass committed suicide over the weekend...
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UNION COUNTY -- The husband of the woman seriously hurt when a rock was thrown on her car from an Interstate 80 overpass committed suicide over the weekend.

The husband of Sharon Budd took his own life at the couple's home in Ohio.

Sharon Budd was critically injured two years ago when a rock that was dropped from an overpass crashed through the windshield of her family's moving car on Interstate 80 in Union County.

Usually when we do stories on the Budd family, the focus is on Sharon Budd. But, we're talking about her husband Randy who died unexpectedly on Saturday.

Randy always considered Pennsylvania his second home, so we spoke with some of his friends, who are trying to comprehend Randy's suicide.

We were never supposed to know the names Sharon and Randy Budd, but after a tragic incident in July of 2014 when a rock was thrown from an overpass in Union County, the Budds became a household name.

The rock hit Sharon in the face and her doctors at Geisinger Medical Center did not expect her to survive, but she did. And now, the Budds' story took a tragic turn over the weekend.

According to Ohio's Stark County coroner, Randy Budd took his own life Saturday.

"I said, 'no, he's not dead, no, he's not,'" said family friend Sandy Warren. "And then, of course, it finally sunk in."

Warren's son and son-in-law, Ron Frost and Jeff Farrow, let the Budd family stay at their guest house while Sharon was in the hospital.

"He was like family to me," Warren said.

Budd even came to Frost and Farrow's wedding.

"Randy and his sister and her husband were there, and the mom and dad were there. It was a very wonderful experience for all of us," Warren recalled.

Randy fought tirelessly to get bills passed which would require fencing at overpasses. A bill was passed in Ohio and Randy was working with State Senator Gene Yaw to pass one here.

According to Yaw, Randy texted him shortly before his death, asking him to please settle the fence issue.

"The damage was already done to his family," said family friend Rhonda Fisher. "He was doing that for other people. He was doing it so this tragic accident didn't happen to anyone else."

Union County District Attorney Pete Johnson, who prosecuted the Budd case, blames Randy's suicide on the four men who are in jail for the rock throwing incident.

Friends Shocked by Randy Budd’s Death

 

"I just hope and pray that we can all just pull together now and pick up the pieces where Randy left off and continue his fight," Fisher added.

There is a GoFundMe page to help with funeral costs and other bills.

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