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Familes deal with life and death mixup

Their families thought Whitney Cerak died in the crash while Laura VanRyn lived. Turns out the opposite was true.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 1, 2006

CALEDONIA, Mich. - The casket was closed for Whitney Cerak's funeral more than a month ago. Her mother, Colleen, declined to look at the body, battered as it was in a collision between a van and a semitrailer truck.

"They wanted to remember her the way she was," said Cerak's grandfather, Emil Frank.

Meanwhile, the family of Laura VanRyn, another victim of the crash, kept vigil by a hospital bed. The severely injured young woman was in a coma for a time, but the family's Web log detailed the many small steps she made toward recovery: feeding herself applesauce, playing Connect Four with a therapist.

But as her condition improved, Laura VanRyn's family realized they had the wrong woman.

The family of VanRyn, 22, disclosed the mixup Wednesday on their blog.

"Our hearts are aching as we have learned that the young woman we have been taking care of over the past five weeks has not been our dear Laura," but instead a fellow university student of hers, Whitney Cerak, they wrote.

The shock was equal but joyous for the family of Cerak, whose funeral drew 1,400 in her hometown of Gaylord, Mich. "I still can't get over it. It's like a fairy tale," Frank said.

VanRyn and Cerak, 18, both students at Indiana's Taylor University, were in a university van when a truck crossed the median of Interstate 69 and collided with it April 26. Five of the 10 students and staff on board died.

The Grant County, Ind., coroner's office apologized for the error Wednesday evening. But the VanRyns said their daughter and Cerak bore an "uncanny resemblance."

Cerak suffered facial swelling, broken bones and cuts and bruises, and was in a neck brace.

[Last modified June 4, 2006, 05:21:31]