The woman who was fatally struck Sunday on Peach Orchard Road was remembered as a good woman whose drinking addiction controlled her life, according to her boyfriend.
Jan Jacoby, 62, was struck by a vehicle around 9 p.m. Sunday as she was crossing the 2600 block of Peach Orchard Road in Augusta. She was rushed to Wellstar MCG Health and placed on life support with a hemorrhage of the brain. She died Wednesday afternoon, Coroner Mark Bowen said.
Witnesses say she had gone to a gas station to buy beer and was struck during her journey. She lived nearby. Details of the crash and driver were not available.
The woman’s boyfriend, Dan Garcia, remembered Jacoby as a good woman who was controlled by alcohol, something she dangerously mixed with Xanax. He said she frequently left their residence – not far near the accident scene – and begged for money for alcohol. “It was so sad,” Garcia said Thursday.
Garcia said he has taken care of Jacoby for the last seven years in an effort to keep her off the streets. She was homeless when he met her, isolated from her family because of her addiction. She was originally from Virginia, he said.
Because Garcia knew of her dangerous combination of Xanax and alcohol, he called her doctors to warn them, but he says they kept prescribing her the drug. He also knew that she wandered the streets under the influence.
“People around here really liked her, but she had an angry side,” he said. “She was a good woman, but the alcohol got her. It was just something that was coming.”
