Former Local Woman Working To Bring Good Out Of Son’s Suicide This is a story of crushed dreams and a hopeful vision. Unspeakable grief and undying optimism. One mother’s worst nightmare, and her best effort to see that something good comes out of it. It was Thursday evening, September 8th, this year. A weekday that unfolded like every other weekday until 5:42 p.m. when Fairfield native Lori (Sullivan) Lofton received the last text message that she would ever get from her son, Brody, 12. “I’m so sorry for what I’m about to do. I love you and (16-year-old brother) Brock, and it’s not your fault,” he wrote. “I want to end the pain of life.” “Can you imagine?” said Lori, who two minutes earlier had gotten into her car to drive home to Newburgh, Indiana from her job at Viamedia Advertising in Evansville. “I immediately called him. No answer.” How could this be? This was a boy who had the kind of life that a lot of kids envy: love and attention, hugs and kisses, support and care. No need went unmet, and he even got some of his wants. He did well in school, was never in trouble, and had lots of friends. No instances of being bullied, either. “We just didn’t have a lot of sadness in our house,” Lori said. “He was such an outgoing kid and full of energy.” Lori immediately called a neighbor who is a nurse practitioner, and asked her to check on Brody while she raced down the Lloyd Expressway, wishing she wasn’t 20 minutes from home. Through the phone, Lori could hear her neighbor open Brody’s bedroom door. “She said ‘oh Brody’ or ‘no Brody’, I don’t know which,” Lori recalled. “Then she said ‘hang up and call 9-1-1’. I asked ‘what’s going on?’ and the phone clicked.” Thank God for caring neighbors, she said. “If I’d have found Brody, I don’t know if I’d be sitting here.” Brody was found dead from a self-inflicted bullet wound to his head, using a hunting rifle that was in the house. He had never shown interest in the gun, and no one realized he knew how to fire it. Even if he did, they never imagined he’d use it. Not like that. Now, Lori has the cremated remains of two loved ones in her home. One urn for Brody, another for his dad, Andy Lofton, who shot himself with a stolen weapon in the garage of their home on November 23rd, 2009, almost ten years after he married Lori. They had divorced a couple of years prior, not due to lack of love,
Brody Lofton, 12, son of Fairfield native Lori (Sullivan) Lofton, took his own life in September. but because of the turmoil inflicted in their lives as a result of Andy’s mental illness. “He threatened suicide every day. I heard it for years,” recalled Lori, who remains close to her in-laws, Charles and Joyce Lofton of Lake Ozark, Missouri. “Andy was in and out of Deaconess Cross Pointe and had lots of therapy. He wanted to get well so badly, but did not have the capacity. He was wired differently.” How, exactly? That’s hard to say. “He was adopted, so we knew nothing about his heritage,” said Lori. “All we knew is that both of his parents were college students and they gave the baby up.” Divorcing him and turning him over to mental health professionals was the hardest thing she’d done up to that point. But the illness prompted Andy to exhibit consistently erratic and self-threatening conduct, and Lori had done everything else she knew to protect their boys from the stressful atmosphere of his behavior, and to keep Andy safe. Continued On Next Page 9