College to hold memorial service for crash victims

UPLAND, Ind. – Taylor University will hold memorials this week for four students and a school employee who were killed in a highway crash a year ago.\nThe parents of two women whose identities were mistakenly switched after the crash are expected to attend one of the memorials in Upland on Thursday, the anniversary of the crash. The families of Whitney Cerak and Laura VanRyn have refrained from public comment since the accident.\nFive weeks after the April 26 crash, authorities announced they had mixed up the identifications of 19-year-old Cerak, of Gaylord, Mich., who was severely injured but survived, and 22-year-old VanRyn, of Caledonia, Mich., who had been killed.\nCerak, a sophomore, returned to Taylor as a full-time student in August and is living on campus.\n“I ran into her on campus recently, and she looks fabulous,” Taylor spokesman Jim Garringer said. “You would never know that she had been through this ordeal, based upon her physical appearance. And I understand from a number of different sources that she’s doing quite well.”\nAs a result of the misidentification by the Grant County coroner’s office, the Indiana General Assembly is considering legislation that would require coroners to be certified in death investigations or forfeit their paychecks. Currently, there are no requirements for coroners other than living in the county where they work and being at least 18 years old.\nThe truck driver accused of falling asleep at the wheel and causing the collision is scheduled to stand trial in August.\nRobert F. Spencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, was charged in September with five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness. Authorities say he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules before he fell asleep and his semitrailer slammed into a Taylor van on Interstate 69 midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.\nSpencer is being held in Jay County, where the trial was moved after a judge decided in January the publicity of the crash and the mix-up was too great for him to get a fair trial in Grant County, where the accident occurred.\nThe students killed in the crash were: VanRyn, Bradley J. Larson, 22, of Elm Grove, Wis., Elizabeth A. Smith, 22, of Mount Zion, Ill. and Laurel E. Erb, 20, St. Charles, Ill.\nUniversity employee Monica Felver, 53, of Hartford City, was also killed.\n“As awful as that night was, and it certainly was a terrible night, we’ve seen some amazing things that have happened in people’s lives over this past year,” Garringer said.\nThe tragedy sparked a newfound closeness between the school’s sophomores, juniors and seniors who were students last year, Garringer said.\n“The entire group came together in a way that I had never seen before,” Garringer said.\nThe memorials will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at First Missionary Church in Fort Wayne and 7 p.m. Thursday at Taylor’s Rediger Chapel Auditorium in Upland.