Lucia Bone founded The Sue Weaver CAUSE in memory of her sister, Sue Weaver, who was brutally raped and murdered, August 27, 2001, in her Orlando Florida home. Sue’s killer was a twice-convicted sex offender that had been hired six months prior to clean her air ducts. Sue contracted with a major department store for the service work and that trust cost Sue her life.
The Sue Weaver CAUSE, Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, was founded in 2004 to promote safety awareness and education. “Employers and consumers need to understand the necessity of criminal background checks on all service employees, contractors and sub-contractors hired to work in or near our home. What happened to Sue could and should have been prevented! “
Lucia campaigns nationwide to bring CAUSE awareness to civic groups, community leaders, legislators, business professionals and consumers. The threat to consumers' safety due to inadequate or non-existent background checks of people being employed to come into your home is a real and serious danger. "Sue’s death was a tragedy! It is even more alarming because this was not an isolated incident. Every year, innocent people become victims of sexual and physical assault in their homes by workers hired as service employees with criminal records”. says Lucia.
“We need national legislation requiring criminal background checks on all service employees and the support of the insurance industry. Businesses have a moral and legal obligation to their clients and they need to get our message. It is absurd for a person with multiple convictions for sexual assaults to be engaged as an in-home service employee, yet it happens all the time”.
CAUSE has been featured in numerous television and newspaper interviews across the country. In 2004, Lucia appeared as one of the feature stories on The Montel Williams Show, "Taking Back My Life".
In the mid 90’s, Lucia and Sue each opened their own custom embroidery and design digitizing companies in Texas and Florida. Their closeness as sisters only increased as they grew their businesses and traveled together. Today Lucia only occasionally does design digitizing. CAUSE is her passion; she now focuses on making a difference in her sister's memory. Lucia doesn't want there to ever be another victim of in-home service providers.
Lucia and her husband, Mike, live in northern Texas. They have two married sons and a daughter in college. Lucia enjoys spending time with her family, traveling and growing orchids.
