"Everyone knew him as 'Skinny,'" Lt. Todd Roberts of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said of his former colleague, Daniel Laubacher. "That was his name that everybody called him. He was just the life of the party everywhere he went."
A sea of purple and gold spreads across Robert Fife Stadium as the Jackson High School Class of 2022 gets ready to graduate, with loved ones looking on.
But one chair on the sidelines sits empty, a reminder of who should be here on this day.
Daniel "Skinny" Laubacher was a 14-year veteran of the OSHP in Wooster. More importantly, he was a husband to Jennifer and a father to three beautiful children-Logan, Landrey and Lexin.
A bigger than life personality who had every gift but length of years.
"He left a huge crater, a huge crater for sure obviously for me and the kids," Jennifer told us when we spoke to her last October. "Our lives were shattered."
Cardiac arrhythmia took Daniel's life unexpectedly in 2014. He was just 39 years old. Understandably, the past 8 years have not been easy for anyone, including Logan.
"My life would change forever," Logan said. "I would be different than everybody else, because I have a different outlook on life family friends and school."
Laura Caso and Susan Moses report: www.wkyc.com/article/life/hea...