Friends and relatives of the three members of an Arlington Heights family killed last week in a car crash plan to gather for a visitation Monday evening and remember a family regarded for their deep ties to the community.
Local police, meanwhile, continued their investigation with a reconstruction of the scene of the crash that Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner called the worst he has seen in decades.
Arlington Heights residents Anita Crawford, 50; her husband, Kevin Crawford, 52; and their eldest daughter, Kirsten Crawford, 20, died Thursday night in a fatal crash on Northwest Highway in Des Plaines.
A 21-year-old Des Plaines man, Piotr Rog, who investigators say was at fault in the crash, may have been driving more than 100 mph, police said. Rog also died following the crash.
Relatives and friends of the Crawford family are planning to gather Monday night at a visitation for the three family members at Friedrichs Funeral Home, followed by an 11 a.m. funeral service Tuesday at St. John Lutheran Church. Both places are located in Mount Prospect.
Rev. Jeff Gavin, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, said he married Kevin and Anita Crawford, and he also baptized their three children in the historic church on Linneman Road.
Now, Gavin faces the task of presiding over the funeral service for Kevin, Anita and Kirsten Crawford.
"Your emotions are still there, but you have to remember that in your position, you are looked at as the rock," Gavin said. "You represent the Lord, and you have to be strong."
A GoFundMe campaign also was established in the wake of Thursday’s fatal crash to provide financial support for the Crawford family’s two surviving children, Hailee, 15, a sophomore at Prospect High School, and Christian, 9, a fourth grader at Windsor Elementary School in Arlington Heights.
Neither Hailee nor Christian were involved in the crash. They now are under the care of their grandparents and aunt.
"This horrific (and) unthinkable tragedy happened while they were doing what most of us do – attending activities or sporting events," supporters of the Crawford family said in a statement on the GoFundMe website. "They leave behind two young children, Hailee, 15, (and) Christian, 9. It breaks my heart to think about what these kids are going through. Not only did these children lose both parents, but they also lost their big sister."
The Des Plaines Police Department also continued its investigation into the deadly crash on Monday.
Rog, who, court records show, had a history of traffic violations and had his driver’s license suspended three times in recent years, appeared to have been driving more than 100 mph around 8:55 p.m. Thursday when his car slammed into a Chevrolet Impala driven by Kevin Crawford, who was turning into the Lattof YMCA parking lot from the eastbound lanes of Northwest Highway.
The Impala was pushed into another vehicle traveling east, police said and, after the crash, was said to resemble "a ball of aluminum foil," with the front end of Rog’s Mercedes reduced by nearly four feet, Kushner said on Friday.
A passenger in Rog’s Mercedes remains in critical condition at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, police said.
Gavin, a longtime pastor at the Mount Prospect church, said Anita Crawford’s parents, Erwin and Ursel Schmidt, have been volunteers for more than 50 years, lending a hand whenever needed.
As a member of the church property board, Erwin Schmidt, 77, helps out with everything from "cutting the grass to painting," Gavin said.
Ursel Schmidt, 73, heads up a Mother’s Day plant sale every spring, as well as planting and tending to the flowers on the church grounds.
While Gavin said his role in the local tragedy is to be of support to the Crawford and Schmidt family, and their friends and relatives in the community, he acknowledged that the next few days will be challenging.
"Our church is not large, and no church can ever be prepared for a triple funeral," Gavin said. "You have to supply the comfort, but it can be difficult to do that."
The visitation for the Crawford family will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Monday at Friedrichs Funeral Home, 320 W. Central Road in Mount Prospect, and will continue at the funeral home at 10 a.m. Tuesday, followed by the funeral service at 11 a.m. at St. John Lutheran Church, 1100 Linneman Road., Mount Prospect.
Donations to the Crawford children can be made at the GoFundMe website, www.gofundme.com/hailee-christian-crawford-fund or at the Des Plaines Police Department, 1420 Miner St., Des Plaines.
kcullotta@tribpub.com
Twitter @kcullotta
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
