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Before 2006, the Cerak & VanRyn families were for the most part, unaware of each other, yet each of their daughters attended Taylor University, a small evangelical Christian school in Upland, Indiana & both families were from Michigan. However, a tragic accident in April 2006 catapulted both families into an emotional journey where they found themselves in an unimaginable twist of fate, their lives forever intertwining.
In the spring of 2006, when 22-year-old Laura Van Ryn wasn’t on Taylor’s campus during the school year, she lived in Caledonia, Michigan with her family, parents, Don & Susie, her older sister, Lisa & her two brothers, Kenny & Mark. She & her boyfriend, Aryn had been dating for the past three years & marriage was likely in their future.
According to Susie, her daughter was an absolute joy who loved being where everybody was. She was happy, giggly, real & genuine.
Meanwhile, Whitney Cerak was 18-years-old & had grown up in Gaylord, Michigan with her parents, Newell & Colleen & an older sister, Carly. According to Colleen, her daughter was an amazing girl who was always so much fun to be around. She had a knack of always making others feel special.
Because the Cerak family was a 2 &-a-half hour drive from the Van Ryn family, they’d never crossed paths with one another. While Laura was a senior at Taylor University, Whitney was a freshman. Both girls were very friendly, outgoing & attracted a large circle of friends & though they may have been familiar with one another, they didn’t know each other well.
The spring semester of 2006 was coming to an end when Whitney noticed a sign-up sheet to volunteer to help with a banquet set-up for an incoming university president that was being held at Taylor’s Fort Wayne campus. Being the type of girl who was eager to surround herself with others & have the opportunity to try something new, Whitney quickly signed up. Going into the day, she felt a little nervous since she was going to be the only freshman attending & she didn’t know the others who’d signed up very well.
The next morning, Wednesday, April 26, 2006, Whitney realized that her nerves were all for nothing since the group ended up being extremely fun, welcoming & friendly. The group of nine, seven of which were students, headed out in the university’s van for the campus that was situated an hour north in Fort Wayne.
During the drive, as Whitney & Laura chatted, they both realized they were each from rural towns in Michigan & despite their four year age gap, they quickly hit it off.
Throughout their day in Fort Wayne, the group of volunteers set up tables & decorations in the banquet hall in preparation for the event that was being held the following night. After stopping off for pizza, somewhere around 8 pm, they all climbed back into the van to make their way back to the main campus, driving down interstate 69.
Sometime between 8-8:30 pm, Susie tried to get ahold of Laura, but she wasn’t able to get through so she figured she would just talk to her daughter later. Meanwhile, Lisa had been playing phone tag with her younger sister in the days before & while they were on their way to Fort Wayne that day, Laura had actually left a message for Lisa, but she hadn’t had the chance to call her back.
Carly Cerak, Whitney’s older sister, was also a student at Taylor & was the first to hear that something was wrong after her friend Ben drove up & told her that there’d been an accident & he believed that Whitney may have been involved. With this, Carly immediately called her sister, but there was no answer & as she continued to call, she remained unable to get through. It wasn’t long before Carly noticed people rushing around; they were asking her if she’d spoken to Whitney. Word began to spread that the accident had been serious & some of the passengers in the university’s van had died.
Whitney & Carly’s mom, Colleen, was five hours away at their home in Gaylord while their dad, Newell, was on a church trip in Mississippi at the time. When Carly tried to contact her parents about what she was being told, she was initially unable to reach them.
It was about 10 pm when Colleen was talking on the phone with Newell when he began hearing the beeps of call waiting coming through. They ignored the beeps since they were mid-conversation & catching up & it wasn’t until the call waiting notification rang through again, this time, on Colleen’s phone that she switched over. Carly was on the other end & she told her mom that they needed to pray as she filled her in on what was going on.
It was just about this same time when the phone rang inside the Van Ryn home where Susie, Don & Lisa were at their home in Caledonia. As Susie picked up the phone, preparing to hear the voice of a telemarketer, she was told that Laura had been involved in a serious accident & she was in critical condition at a hospital in Fort Wayne.
Within minutes, the Van Ryns jumped into their car to make the two & a half hour drive to Fort Wayne. As they sped toward the hospital, staff continued to contact them as they struggled to process just how quickly their lives had changed as they heard details of the severity of Laura’s injuries. They were told that she was unconscious, had some broken bones as well as a head injury & they needed to give consent to place a tube into Laura’s head to monitor her intracranial pressure. They were terrified & prayed she would survive as they continued their seemingly endless drive.
While the Van Ryn family made their way to the hospital, the Cerak family waited by the phone, desperate for news about Whitney’s condition. Meanwhile, Newell did the same in Mississippi, hoping & praying that Colleen would call with news that their daughter was okay.
Neither family could have ever imagined just how terrible the crash had been that night. An 80,000 pound tractor trailer that was fully loaded was driving north on I-69 while the school’s van headed south. The driver, Robert Spencer, who’d fallen asleep behind the wheel, barrelled across the median into the southbound lanes, right into the path of the van. Upon impact, the van was torn open, the impact causing the passengers to launch from the vehicle while their belongings were strewn about the interstate.
Five of the nine passengers were killed instantly while the other suffered injuries, some serious. One woman was thrown fifty feet & by the time paramedics arrived, she was barely breathing & quickly airlifted to Parkview Hospital, the nearest trauma center in Fort Wayne, the same hospital that the Van Ryns were instructed to go.
When the family arrived at about 1:15 am, they were met with somewhere around 20 of Laura’s friends in the lobby as they were greeted with hugs & tears. At that point, Laura was still alive, but there was uncertainty as to whether or not she would survive. And if she did survive, there was no telling if she would ever be the same person again.
Meanwhile, at about 10:45 pm, two hours after the accident, Colleen Cerak received a phone call from the coroner. Through her shock & devastation, she recalls hearing the word, sorry as she heard the unimaginable news that her baby girl, Whitney, was dead. She dropped the phone, fell to her knees & sobbed. She quickly ended the call so that she could contact Newell & as he heard his wife’s voice on the other end of the line, a thousand miles away, he desperately prayed that she would say that Whitney was okay. After he heard her say, Newell, I’m sorry, he remembers little else after.
Knowing how heartbroken Colleen was, the family pastor offered to break the devastating news to Carly, who was on Taylor’s campus. By that point, she’d already rushed to Marion General Hospital in Indiana in hopes that she would find that her sister was alive. However, she was told that Whitney had been dead for hours; her body was only a few feet away, but Carly was far too distraught & devastated to see her sister’s remains.
After Carly was taken into another room, she was given her sister’s purse which had been found next to her body. Just the sight of her sister’s things only further broke her heart as she smelled the odor of gasoline emanating from the purse. It was dirty & the contents were broken & as she looked at the mangled contents, she could only imagine that it was exactly what had happened to her little sister.
While Newell made travel arrangements to fly back home from Mississippi, their pastor offered to drive Colleen to Indiana, five hours away. When she arrived at the hospital, like her daughter, Colleen also didn’t want to see Whitney’s body since she only wanted to remember her as the beautiful, living, vibrant person she’d always been.
Six hours later & fifty miles away, Laura’s family remained at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, preparing to see her for the first time since her accident. They were told to prepare themselves for the fact that she wouldn’t look like herself; there were tubes coming out of her body & she was very bruised up. As they entered the room, much of their daughter’s face was obstructed from the machines & tubes, including a ventilator that was allowing her to breathe. Her face was swollen with some minor cuts. It was heartbreaking to see their daughter laying there & Don & Susie felt utterly helpless.
While they were there, they were given Laura’s belongings which included a purse & wallet as well as a pair of shoes they didn’t recognize. Since they knew that the college girls were always borrowing & sharing clothes, they thought nothing of it.
Throughout the time that Laura remained in the ICU, Susie began a prayer journal that including writings she planned to share with her daughter if & when she recovered. She wrote, To see my sweet sunshine girl hooked up to tubes was almost more than I could do.
On Thursday, April 27, one day after the crash, Taylor University held a prayer service for the victims & Colleen attended as names of the victims were flashed on a large projector screen. Everyone prayed for each victim & when Whitney’s name came upon the screen, Colleen felt a sense of peace that every single person there was praying for her daughter & their family. Everything felt so surreal at the time & it hadn’t yet fully sunk in that her daughter was gone, but she felt strength in that moment that was fueled by her strong faith.
As Newell boarded his flight back to Michigan, it felt unreal that the world continued on despite his immense pain & loss. He was met by Colleen & Carly at the airport & no words were spoken, they only held one another & sobbed. They made their way to Whitney’s dorm so they could gather her belongings & make their way back home. As they drove, Colleen wrote her daughter’s obituary:
Whitney Erin Cerak, age 18 of Gaylord, died in a tragic car accident Wednesday, April 26, 2006 in Marion, Indiana. She lived a wonderful & full, but short life. She was a freshman at Taylor University where she was growing in love & knowledge of her friend & savior, Jesus Christ. She is now living with Him in heaven.
Meanwhile the Van Ryn family held a 24/7 vigil around Laura, who remained critically injured. Lisa decided to start a blog on Friday, April 28, two days after the crash as a way to keep loved ones updated about her sister. She wrote:
Her left leg (femur) & left elbow are broken & have been placed in casts. Her right clavicle bone is broken also & it is in a sling right now. She has some fractured ribs & an array of cuts & bruises. It is apparent that she feels pain, which is actually a good sign.
The worst of Laura’s injuries weren’t visible on the outside; on the inside, her brain was seriously damaged from the impact of the crash which caused her brain to slam around her skull. Only time would tell if she would ever wake up & recover.
Meanwhile, Whitney’s family held a visitation one day before her funeral on Saturday, April 29 & the line stretched on as mourners came to pay their respects & share moments of how Whitney touched their lives during her own short life. Despite their pain, these words brought them comfort on a day that just so happened to fall on Whitney’s birthday. Since their daughter was always a lover of birthdays, they played videos from her earlier birthday parties on a TV as images flashed across the screen of Whitney smiling. Seeing her joy & hearing her laugh helped them celebrate her life.
Because of the extent of her injuries, Whitney’s casket was closed during her funeral, which was held the following day. In a church that held 1,100 people, more than 1,400 people attended & the Cerak family felt surrounded by love on such a horribly sad day.
Back in Fort Wayne, on May 2, six days after the accident, Lisa updated her blog about Laura’s recovery:
Laura’s surgeries today went great! They set her broken leg & elbow & added a couple of plates for stabilization. She’ll get to be more entertaining going through metal detectors now! The tracheostomy went very well also.. There is no longer anything in her mouth; all tubes, etc have been removed. Laura’s color has improved a great deal. She also is still moving quite a bit.
By this point, Laura was still in intensive care, in a coma; she remained heavily bandaged & her face was still very swollen, but through it all, her family remained at her bedside. Despite the fact that she couldn’t respond, they would talk to her, telling her who’d come to see her that day, what they were doing, trying to keep their conversation very positive. They told her that she was doing great, that her hair looked particularly good that day, that all the flowers were blooming since it was springtime. They also sang her favorite songs. Since she was in ICU, visitors were limited so they rotated family & friends in & out.
As time ticked by, Laura began moving more & more & at times, she would follow prompts & squeeze someone’s hand, wiggle her toes & squint her closed eyes. These were all very positive signs for the Van Ryn family to see which boosted their hope that she would wake up, that she was understanding what was being said.
One day, while Lisa sat at her sister’s bedside, she noticed that Laura opened her mouth to yawn & when she did, her two teeth on either side of her front teeth looked a little different from how they’d previously been. As she looked more closely, they all made the assumption that since Laura had been found up against the fence, her teeth had likely shifted on impact.
On Sunday, May 7, Taylor University held a memorial service for the four students & one staff member who’d died during the crash. Whitney’s family drove over to attend & on their way, they passed the accident site & stopped off & got out of their car. They noted five crosses on the side of the road & were able to see the location where their daughter lost her life, noting the large crevices in the median that had been torn up from the truck coming across.
Before attending the memorial service, a dinner was held at the home of the university’s president & they were able to meet the university official who identified Whitney’s body. The man was a good friend of theirs so they had the opportunity to thank him for what he’d done for them.
Susie & Don left Laura’s bedside to attend the memorial service as well. Newell Cerak gave a touching speech about his daughter, Whitney, as victims’ photos were shown on the projection screen. It was during this time that the Cerak family had the opportunity to meet the Van Ryn family in which they each said they were praying for the other. The Ceraks had been following Lisa’s blog, checking in on Laura’s recovery on a near daily basis.
That same day, Lisa updated the blog & wrote,
Laura is still sporting the pigtails & her face is looking quite normal; there is virtually no swelling at all.
By this time, Laura had been in a coma for 11 days & the blog’s following had grown as word spread all over the world. Lisa went on to write that Laura was breathing on her own, sitting in a chair & looking peaceful. She remained unconscious, but was moving more & more with each passing day.
Being in the hospital, there was naturally a lack of privacy & one day Lisa got a surprise when she saw that her sister’s navel was pierced, something that made her chuckle a bit, but she just shrugged off.
It wasn’t long before the Van Ryn family was rejoicing in a major step forward when Laura opened her eyes for the first time since the crash. One eye opened only a slit, it was very glassy & unfocused, but much improved, which was encouraging.
After twenty days of being in a coma, Laura gradually began to wake up & in Lisa’s blog post from May 16, she wrote about Laura speaking for the very first time. In a very weak, hoarse voice, she managed to say, hi. With each new improvement, the family celebrated the win.
Meanwhile, the Cerak family tried to get themselves back into a life that felt anything but normal without Whitney there. Carly was back at Taylor University for the first time since the accident while Newell & Colleen returned to work & to a home that felt empty without her, their days a blur.
On May 18, three weeks after the crash, Laura was transferred from the hospital to Spectrum Health Continuing Care rehab center in Grand Rapids, less than 30 minutes from home. Lisa wrote a blog post on May 22 to answer a question that was often asked by the blog’s followers; is Laura out of the coma? She explained that yes, she was, but it did not mean that she was bright eyed & fully aware of what was going on. Her brain was still recovering & the process would be a very slow, gradual one.
When her boyfriend of several years, Aryn, came to visit, he noticed that Laura’s eyes were bluer than he remembered with a greenish hue.
On May 26, Lisa wrote that Laura was opening her eyes quite a bit, but they were still unsure what she was focusing on when she did. When they asked if she saw something, she would often nod & respond, but it wasn’t entirely clear if she was recognizing them at that point or not.
One month after the crash, with Laura now at rehab, she was undergoing intensive therapy to learn how to do all of the things we all typically take for granted, including how to walk & talk. As her speech slowly improved, the Van Ryn family grew concerned by some of the things she said. She called Lisa both Carly & April as well as one other name & they made the assumption that she was mixing up a staff member with the family. Laura also called Aryn Hunter & told him to lie down.
Because she’d suffered a traumatic brain injury, it was no surprise that she was mixing things up. When she was shown a photo of her roommates, she was able to name each which was very encouraging. They saw she still had her strong soccer legs & she often jiggled them up & down which was very typical of what she’d always done.
Memorial day was the first time the family had spent away from Laura when they visited with friends though Don attended a physical therapy session with his daughter. When the therapist asked her to write her name she wrote, Whitney. The therapist asked Don if she knew someone else by that name & he explained that a girl named Whitney had been killed during the same accident & she & Laura had actually been sitting next to one another in the van during the accident.
As Don wheeled his daughter back from therapy, he could hear her mumble something & as he leaned closer to better understand, he heard the words, false parents. As the day progressed, friends of the Van Ryns joined them for dinner at the rehab center & when Susie asked Aryn to wheel her over to say hi, she noticed a strange look pass over her friend’s faces.
Meanwhile, Lisa headed over to see her sister after spending the day with friends & as she sat with her as she fell asleep, she looked at her sister’s face & felt doubt in her mind & in her heart. Her teeth looked different & her eyes were too blue. When she got home, Lisa grabbed a CD they’d been given that was played at Whitney’s funeral & as Whitney’s face came on screen, Lisa was able to see her teeth. Immediately, she was brought back to the time in the ICU when her sister yawned & she & her brother noticed that her teeth looked different than she remembered. The teeth matched the image of Whitney on her TV.
That night, Susie wrote in her journal that she couldn’t bear having Laura taken from her, Could I not know my own daughter? Oh God, help me. This was when doubt truly began to set in that the girl they’d been holding vigil next to might not be their daughter & if it wasn’t, she would need her true parents right away. Don was still holding out hope that this was Laura, but the next day, when he spoke with his friends that met them the previous evening, they spoke with him about their doubts that the girl was his daughter.
Susie & Don decided to find out how the bodies at the crash site had been identified & as they made various phone calls, they were told that the contents of the van had been strewn around & a visual ID had been made at the scene.
At this same time, Lisa was attending a therapy session with Laura & when the therapist instructed Laura, throw the ball to your sister, Lisa believed in her heart that this was not her sister. After the session, Lisa knelt down in order to be face-to-face & said, Can you tell me your name? Immediately, she responded, Whitney. When she asked what her parent’s names were, she said, Newell & Colleen. This was something Laura would have never known which sealed the truth, this was Whitney Cerak, not Laura Van Ryn.
Lisa somehow remained calm, wheeled Whitney back to her room & spoke to her parents. Realization was hitting them that they knew where Laura was & she was gone, but before they could even acknowledge their grief, their first priority was contacting Newell & Colleen. They called them on Wednesday, May 31, five weeks since the fatal accident. When the phone rang at 2 am inside the Cerak home it was the Grant County Coroner & the Grant County Chaplain. This time, Colleen was home with Carly as Newell was in New Jersey; his first church youth group outing since the accident.
After she was asked if she was home alone & she explained that she was there with her daughter, they instructed her to get Carly so she could be with her when they eventually said the words, We have reason to believe that your daughter, Whitney, is alive. Nothing made sense about the words they were hearing; they’d been at Whitney’s funeral, they watched as her casket was lowered into the earth.
They asked her to bring dental records & at that point, Carly didn’t believe for a moment that it was her sister since she’s close friends with some of Laura’s friends who went down & visited her & said nothing about it. After Carly & her mom got Whitney’s dental records, they made the 2 &-a-half hour drive to the rehab center in Grand Rapids. As the sun rose, they arrived & were brought back to Whitney’s room
As soon as they pushed the door open & peeked at the girl’s face who lay in her bed, they knew it was Whitney; they were screaming & crying as they ran over to hug her. Newell recalls the phone call that came through; this time around he was told that his daughter was actually alive which was a stark contrast from the call he’d received five weeks earlier. The Cerak family was instantly catapulted from grief to elation & disbelief.
The dental records sealed the fate for the Van Ryn family, who went from doubt to devastation when it was confirmed that their daughter was gone. Don recalls the moment he realized he needed to call his sons to tell them that they’d lost their sister. When Don & Susie were later asked if they felt it would have been easier to lose Laura on the night of the accident rather than five weeks later, they weren’t sure, but either way, it was something that isn’t supposed to happen; a parent losing their child.
The Cerak family was soon reunited with the Van Ryns at the rehab center & Don & Susie worried how Colleen & Newell would feel about them. The Cerak family hold no ill will toward the Van Ryns for not recognizing the mistake sooner & there were hugs, tears & compassion shared. Newell arrived later that day having driven 14 hours from New Jersey.
Those that had been following Lisa’s blog were stunned when she posted about the mistaken identity & the fact that her sister was gone. The mix-up had also made world headlines & the attention during their time of mourning was horrific for the Van Ryns who wanted to privately grieve.
People across the world marveled at how a family who had spent 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a young girl’s bedside over the course of five weeks hadn’t recognized that it wasn’t their loved one. It all began at the crash site which was described as utter chaos where two women’s purses containing their photo IDs were switched . The coroner acknowledged that no scientific testing had been done to confirm with certainty the identities of the deceased as state law at that time didn’t require any. No member of Whitney’s family had requested to see her body.
Yes, on the surface, Laura & Whitney were both young, blonde, attractive females, but there were key differences as well; their teeth, eye color, the navel piercing, the fact that Whitney is about four inches taller than Laura.
Don Van Ryn indicates because they were prepared by hospital staff as they made their way to see Laura, that she would look altered, they walked into her room & saw the tubes, the fact that her face was swollen, her eyes were closed, she wasn’t speaking on top of the fact that their emotional state was very fragile. More than 100 people had come to visit her & no one questioned anything.
Whitney later indicated that beginning on the night of the crash, April 26, 2006, there is a large gap in her memory. She recalls working at the banquet, having fun, stopping off for pizza afterwards. She next recalls rolling over in a hospital bed, seeing her mom & crying a lot. The space in between when the Van Ryn family held vigil at her bedside believing she was Laura, are mostly blank. She acknowledges that it must have truly messed with her mind to look up at a family that she didn’t recognize, to hear them call her Laura as she was coming out of her coma.
Whitney knew of Laura before that horrific day, but the day of the crash was the first time the two had really talked. When she was asked if she ever noticed a resemblance between them, she said that it never occurred to her.
Whitney went on to visit the cemetery where her parents buried a woman they believed to be her. She’s also listened to a tape from her funeral service which felt utterly surreal. Meanwhile, the Cerak family reflected on the tremendous gift they were given in getting Whitney’s life back & a chance to spend more time with her.
Meanwhile, Laura’s Van Ryn’s body was removed from the cemetery near Whitney’s home about a week after the mix-up was discovered. She was moved near her own family’s home & on June 4, a memorial service was held for Laura. Everyone gathered to share their memories of time spent with the compassionate & kind young woman.
Lisa Van Ryn wrapped up her blog with one final post:
Our final encouragement to all is this: do not hang on to the things of this world too tightly. Life here is but a vapor & there is an eternity ahead. As you remember the Van Ryn & Cerak families, let us encourage you to look to your neighbors as well. God calls us to love.
Indiana now has a bill in place that sets clear standards for identifying accident victims. Robert Spencer, the truck driver who hit the van, pleaded guilty to criminal negligence & was sentenced to four years in prison.
Neither family has filed a lawsuit in this case. It is their goal to forgive & move forward. The Cerak & Van Ryn families came together to write a book about what happened called Mistaken Identity.
Taylor University built a prayer chapel in honor of the five victims who lost their lives in the crash; students Laura Van Ryn, Brad Larson, Laurel Erb, Betsy Smith & university staff member Monica Felver.
Four months after the accident, Whitney returned to Taylor & graduated with her class three years later. It was not an easy road as she continued to struggle with her recovery, both mentally & physically. She felt sadness, survivor’s guilt for being the only student to survive, she felt broken & retreated into herself. However, her community rallied around her & paired with her strong faith, she was guided through her pain.
Whitney Cerak is now Whitney Wheeler, a married mother of three living in Indiana with her family.
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