Just days before Dana Marie Foley was shot in a Staten Island apparent murder-suicide, she discussed her hopes for her 10-year-old son’s future at a family party, relatives say.
Foley, 39, was shot in the chest in her estranged ex-boyfriend’s home on Garth Court near Corona Ave. in Richmondtown about 11:10 a.m. Aug. 13, leaving her son Lennon motherless.
Four days earlier, her son was all she wanted to talk about.
“We had the most beautiful day and the most beautiful barbecue,” said Foley’s sister Nicole Foley of the Aug. 9 family gathering.
“We had a really beautiful conversation about what we all want for Lennon’s future in regard to high school. I’m just so grateful I had that conversation.”
“Dana’s pride and joy and first role in life is mother,” she added. “Her son was her life.”
Dana’s ex Dakota Suckstorff, 27, was found in the home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A gun was recovered near him, according to authorities.
Dana’s family aren’t sure what she was doing at his home and said she had not mentioned him resurfacing lately or expressed any fear of him. He was not Lennon’s father.
“She would have shared everything with me, or one of her few best friends, and I spoke to all of them, and no one had inklings,” Nicole said. “They had a past relationship. It had been over for more than two years.”
Dana died at the scene. Medics rushed Suckstorff to Staten Island University Hospital North, where he died hours later.
Dana lived with Lennon and her parents in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Staten Island.
“I’m heartbroken,” said Foley’s mom, Joanne. “I’m trying to stay strong for Nicole and my husband but its hard sometimes. This is a mother’s worst worst nightmare. Nobody should lose a child.”
Joanne last saw her daughter the night before she was killed when Dana was leaving for work at Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza, the popular eatery where she was general manager.
“I said ‘Bye, I love you, be careful,’” Joanne recalled. “She said, ‘Bye, I love you.’”
Goodfellas, where Dana had worked since she was a teenager, “was her second home,” Nicole said. “That was her second family, between the staff, her boss, and the customers.”
Dana “had the most infectious laugh,” Nicole added. “She was my absolute best friend, the best friend that anyone can ask for, my protector.” Despite being four years apart, “we were like twins.”
“She loved sports more than anything,” Nicole said. “When the Knicks won, that was a big deal,” Nicole said. “She took Lennon to the parade and he got to touch the championship trophy.”
Now Lennon is adrift.
“He’s 10,” Nicole said. “She’s his world.”
“If Dana was cooking dinner, he was at the stove with her,” she added. “The kid loves so much rock and roll because of my sister.”
Dana was “the funniest f—king person and that’s why Lennon has such a good sense of humor,” Nicole said. “They would play pranks on each other.”
Dana’s relationship with her son mirrored that with her own father.
“My dad and my sister are very bonded,” Nicole said. “She’s very much the son he never had.”
As a teen, Dana played softball. Her father, Kevin Foley, a former college baseball player, was her first coach.
“That was a lot of fun,” Kevin said, emotion straining his voice. “She would actually use my glove and she played the same position that I played growing up. She played third base, and it was something that made me very proud.”
Dana passed her loved of sports on to Lennon, often taking him to matches as well as Broadway plays and cultural events around the city.
The Sunday before Dana’s death, she discussed her hopes for Lennon’s future with Nicole and Lennon’s father, whom she remained close to as they co-parented Lennon.
Lennon “is going to be able to achieve anything because he’s just that brilliant,” Nicole said. “And he’s also very empathetic, so not only with his intellect but also with his heart — and his heart is all Dana.”
Dana’s best friend started a GoFundMe to raise money to be put in a trust to support Lennon’s future.
As they reel from Dana’s death, there are some things too painful to discuss.
“That man. We don’t say his name,” Joanne said of her daughter’s killer. “He ruined so many people’s lives right now, so many people. First and foremost, being my grandson.”
