Good Morning, I would like to send my condolences out to the family first. What a tragic loss for you. I also feel compelled to address the title of the article with the Patch. Is it really necessary to title it the way you did? There was enough reference in the article about the heroin arrest...did the family and SoLehi need to have that in bold print? I feel it a bit insensitive and ugly that you felt the need to take a sad situation (death of a 21 year old young man), and "inform" us of his death in this way. I don't know the family personally, but felt I needed to say something.

I agree, Tracy.

I met him through my daughter , his Best friend and his girlfriend. He was off drugs for almost a year and recently received his certification in automotive. He was proud of himself(so were we) and looked wonderful. I wish your article would not have been so mean. We all have a past But we need to reflect on the present. It should of commented on all the good he has been doing with his life. He was not a bad kid or a menance to society. A mistake was made , it took his life and now his family is suffering. Let's talk about the positive attributes he did. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and ALL his friends.

I agree also. My daughter was freinds with him for many years, and has seen him go thru good and bad and back to good. I lost my brother to this "evil" called heroin. I don't feel it is right for any so called journalist to print only partial events that happen. If you feel that you must print a story about any young person in our community, please do a little bit more research as there may be more to what "court records" show or what a previous news article says.

I agree with "ALL" of the above writers. First, my condolences to the family for your loss of your son. To those of you who knew "Billy" I am certain that he had many strengths that are not noted throughout the article. However, as Tracy Stough pointed out, the author focused on the the former drug issue as opposed to having empathy for the family. I understand you are publishing an online newspaper for the community at no cost, but please be sensitive to the communities needs. A simple "Former Solehi Student Passes Away" would have been sufficient. This reminds me of the article that was published about the prom incident over at Bear Creek...perhaps a follow up to this story would be nice or a retraction to the title would be more appropriate.

I was one of billys close friends and for his sake I have to say elizabeth rich YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON. Billy was a great person who like any othe person made mistakes but it is no one elses business what he did in his past. You should loss your job for writting BS like this.

I feel as though these author's need to watch more carefully of what they say regarding stories like this and to sympathize for the family. There should be a law or not what is said in the article regarding the person who just passed. If the family does not what that information out then that is private not PUBLIC!!

I really don't think Billy would want the whole world knowing what he did years ago. That's in the past and was completely unnecessary to add all his other mistakes made in his previous lifetime to this article. As his Girlfriend and the mother to his child I'm going to stand up for him when I see this because its BS. I'm sure the person who wrote this never had to go through something as tragic as this but that still doesn't give her the right to publicize something like this. As for southern Lehigh I'm not too worry about them. That school is a joke. Just wanted to put in my thoughts.
I LOVE YOU BILLY!

I am Billy's step mother and i just shot off a wicked email to this most insensitive example of what is passing for a human being these days! He was not an angel but he was not the devil either, he was just a young person that had the great misfortune of getting caught up in something so bad, but the point is is that he was changing his life and no stupid news reporter knew anything about that! How dare the news drag us all through the mud all over again, once just seemed to not be enough for them, go ahead and let her respond to my email and still act indignat, I will show up at her desk and throw all of the things she did not know about our Billy and shove them down her throat!

Hi everyone,

I'd like to start off by first saying thank you for feeling comfortable enough to post here. It makes me feel like we're really creating a solid community on the site.

I would like to take this opportunity to say how truly sorry I am for everyone's loss. I certainly never set out to hurt anyone or disparage anyone's name. This article was based on the information Lehigh County made available back in May and public records emailed to me.

I ran the idea of altering the headline and the article past my superiors, and the request was rejected. I would, however be more than willing to run an additional article about William, and link it back to the original post, as well as add an addendum to the original piece.

Again I am truly sorry. Please continue to reach out to me in a constructive way without threats of violence against me or my loved ones. I am always open to a conversation.

Thank you Ms. Rich for responding to our comments, and I would also like to take this moment to apologize for my email that was sent to you. I heard about this through my husband Billy's father and it just sent me into orbit! I would very much like to take the time to speak with you by phone and help put things in better perspective for you, and in doing so maybe the powers that be at your place of employment will in the future use a little more disgression while selecting a story title. Mrs. G

Hi mrs rich,you know the my son was love very much from his family and friends.we also had four or five his teacher from his school came to his furnel and over two hundred people the came to his furnel go to show how much he was love by everyone.you can get my address you can come talk to me bc I am the one that know him the bestbc I am his mom and his twin.