Belleville woman was ‘a good person, she just had some demons,’ friends and family say
When April Nichols got the call that her cousin, Lacey McDannel, had died, she was heartbroken.
But, she said, it’s a phone call she thought she might someday receive.
“It’s not surprising at all,” Nichols said Sunday. “Lacey had been struggling with drugs since she was 12 years old.”
McDannel, 35, was found dead on an East St. Louis street by police officers at 7:10 a.m. Thursday. St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye’s office said a cause of death has not been determined and that the toxicology and autopsy results may not be available for up to a year.
Family and friends, however, believe the Belleville woman overdosed on heroin.
“She was a direct casualty of the opioid epidemic,” Lauren Anthony, McDannel’s friend of more than 15 years said. “But she wasn’t just some addict. She had her addiction, but she was a good person, too.”
Anthony and McDannel met in McDannel’s hometown of Burlington, Iowa, when Anthony, who is originally from the metro-east, was placed there for a training. She was managing a steakhouse there and hired McDannel.
At some point, the “bubbly” blonde McDannel asked Anthony where she was staying during the training period, and when Anthony told her, McDannel said she’d come by to say hello.
“I didn’t think she would stop by, but she did,” Anthony recalled, laughing. “She came with her child and her dog, and we’ve been friends since that moment.”
McDannel was a mother to three boys. Her sons — ages 17, 14 and 10 — are in the care of McDannel’s aunt. Their father, McDannel’s ex-boyfriend, died of a drug overdose in Burlington eight years ago, Anthony said.
Though McDannel’s sons had been in and out of her care for years as she battled her addiction, Anthony said her love for them was never a question.
“She wanted what was best for them, and would always do what was best for them,” Anthony said.
Anthony described her friend as a fun-loving person with an extroverted personality.
“She didn’t have anybody that was her enemy,” Anthony said of McDannel. “She got along with anyone, and maybe trusted too many people.”
BEHIND THE STORY
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The Belleville News-Democrat is telling Lacey McDannel’s story in an effort to profile the person behind the addiction and possibly serve a cautionary tale to those who share her struggle.
Growing up in Burlington, McDannel made friends everywhere she went, Nichols said.
“She was the pretty, popular girl in school that everyone was jealous of, but she had a heart of gold,” Nichols said of her cousin. “We have been though everything together.”
Nichols, who now lives in Macon, Georgia, remembered how she and her cousin would go to the zoo together as kids, or play dress-up and pretend they were beauty queens.
“We did everything together,” Nichols said. “When we got older, that included drugs.”
Nichols has now been sober for three years, she said, crediting a 12-step program and having a sponsor. She said she tried to persuade McDannel to do the same.
“There’s not a pill that fixes it and makes (addiction) go away,” Nichols said. “I chose that life and I chose to get out of that life. I know if I go back out to it, I’ll be where Lacey is now.”
According to Nichols and Anthony, McDannel’s opioid addiction began with prescription pills while growing up in Iowa. It eventually snowballed to heroin.
“Once she tried heroin, she couldn’t fight it,” Anthony said. “She had been through many rock bottoms.”
Anthony recalled the times she would have to buy diapers and formula for McDannel’s sons when they were babies, or drive up to Iowa in the middle of the night to help her friend. She said McDannel finally moved to the metro-east in “a state of emergency” in 2008. She had been living with Anthony for the last five months of her life.
Though Anthony did not approve of McDannel’s drug use, she understood her friend’s struggle, and said it didn’t prevent them from having a close bond.
“She didn’t choose to be an addict,” Anthony said. “She fought addiction and she loved us.”
According to the coroner’s office, there were 54 deaths caused by overdoses in St. Clair County in 2018.
Nichols said her cousin was more than just her addiction.
“She really was a good person, she just had some demons,” Nichols said. “Some deal with their demons better than others.”
McDannel’s funeral will be Friday, Nov. 22, at Serenity Memorial Chapel in Belleville from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
A GoFundMe has been started by Anthony to raise money for memorial funds.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 2:36 PM.
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