LORAIN, Ohio -- Lori Beecher-McGinnis first learned that her son used heroin the night she found him dead.
Brandon McGinnis took painkillers to ease discomfort from a debilitating workplace injury. But Lori never thought her son -- who even had a fear of needles -- would use heroin.
"I keep asking why," she said. "I know I'm never going to get an answer."
The 26-year-old died of a heroin overdose just before midnight March 17, 2015. His surviving family members include his 6-year-old daughter, Hayden, his mother and his 22-year-old sister.
Brandon is among the hundreds who have died of overdoses within the last three years in Lorain County. The county coroner's office said a record 67 people died in 2013, followed by 60 in 2014 and 62 in 2015.
Brandon died just six months after a fall at his welding job bruised his tailbone and caused four bulging discs in his lower back. The situation worsened when doctors discovered he had thyroid cancer and a cyst at the bottom of his brain stem.
He stayed in the hospital several days and took medication to ease the pain. But the discomfort continued when his prescription expired. Brandon started stealing his mother's prescription Vicodin and buying painkillers on the street, Lori said.
The injury also affected Brandon's professional and personal lives. It kept him out of work and left him unable to pay child support to Hayden's mother.
Brandon moved back home and kept himself busy with odd jobs. He also took care of his grandfather. But Lori feels the physical pain and the emotional impact of being out of work led him to heroin.
"If he hadn't been hurt, he would still be here today," she said.
The night he died, Brandon told Lori he needed to stop at a friend's house for painkillers. When he arrived home he told her he wanted to take a shower.
Lori grew concerned when Brandon stayed in the shower for nearly 45 minutes. When she opened the bathroom door she found him unconscious.
"I knew right away he was dead," she said.
Lori first responded with anger toward the people who provided heroin to her son. She confronted several of his friends to ask why they didn't tell her that her son was addicted to heroin.
But she also remembers her son as a kind man who loved motorsports and monster trucks. Brandon loved country music and his family -- traits he's passed on to his daughter Hayden, who visits Lori every month.
"There's so much of Brandon in her personality." Lori said. "And she has his smile."
Later she found and ally and a close friend in Lorain Community Task Force founder Lori Guest. The task force connected her to a support group of other grieving mothers who shared similar stories.
"When I finally opened up, I felt better," she said. "It didn't make me less sad. But it helped me."