GUILTY PA - Stephanie Machen, 25, found dead, Bensalem, 16 Feb 2016

A group of young women on a maroon velour sofa in a Pottstown apartment chatted about their day.

It appeared like it a was a typical day in the life of friends.

But it was different.

The women share a common bond: they are all recovering opioid addicts.

They live in Steph's Place, an addiction recovery house in Pottstown, where they lean on one another for support.

John Machen opened Steph's Place on Aug. 1 in memory of his daughter, Stephanie, who died on Feb. 16 at age 25 of a heroin overdose.

Machen, 63, a recovering addict, said that in memory of his daughter he has devoted his life to helping others recover from addiction.

"It gives me purpose in life knowing that my daughter did not die in vain," he said.

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Machen, of Royersford, Montgomery County, with Carpenter, said he was devastated after receiving a call at work notifying him that his daughter had overdosed.

"I felt like a part of me was dead," Machen said. "I had called every police department looking for my daughter."

She died of an overdose in a North Philadelphia apartment, and her body was dumped along Interstate 95 in Bucks County. The man who dumped her body was sentenced to prison.

Machen said he does not blame anyone for his daughter's overdose, saying that he also was addicted to drugs when he was growing up in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Machen, who has been clean for decades, said people suffering from addiction function differently.

"People suffering from addiction have a broken brain," he said. "I believe some people are born with it and others are not. It could be hereditary or learned behavior or both."

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