They were high school sweethearts and were planning to get married soon.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 23, 2022. It has since been updated.
High school sweethearts Aaron Godines and his fiancee, 20-year-old Haile Everts, who were recently engaged, went to Colorado from Wyoming to celebrate Godines’ 20th birthday.
Godines, Everts, the couple’s 3-month-old daughter, and Godines’ parents, Christina and Emiliano Godines were headed back home on June 13, 2022, after celebrating in Denver when they were rear-ended on Interstate 25 near Highway 66, according to ABC 27.
When they were going back home, Everts' mom told her to leave a text when they made it safe, but the text never arrived. “She said, ‘I love you mom,’ and I told her, ‘Make sure you text me when you leave Denver,'” Desiree Everts, Everts' mother, cried. “And she said. ‘OK.'”
The couple was supposed to get married soon, but instead of planning a wedding, Desiree now has to heartbreakingly plan a funeral.
Initial investigations revealed that a 2015 Ford Edge, a 2013 Ford Focus, and a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander were in the left lane of northbound I-25 around 1:30 pm. They slowed for traffic when a Kenworth semi-truck that was also northbound in the left lane rear-ended the Ford Edge, which was carrying the family, at an unknown speed.
An engaged couple, their 3-month-old daughter and the driver’s parents were all killed in a multi-vehicle crash involving a semi-truck as they drove home to Wyoming from Colorado.https://t.co/lP5aZZf2ho
— CBS47 (@CBS47) June 16, 2022
The impact pushed the vehicle off the left side of the roadway, making it crash into the center median. As a result, the semi rear-ended the Ford Focus, pushing it into the Mitsubishi.
The worst part of it all is the way Desiree found out about her daughter, future son-in-law, and granddaughter's death. She said she saw the video footage from the crash, “and I knew that was their car,” she sobbed.
“I just wanted my baby to be OK,” Desiree cried, speaking of her daughter. “I wanted all of them to be OK. She was my firstborn. She was my baby girl.”
Everts leaves behind two teenage siblings. The dejected mom then shared that Godines was an amazing father and a son-in-law. Their love was described as “undeniable,” but they had all the more love than they did for each other, for their baby girl, Tessleigh.
“She had dimples. She was the perfect baby and the best niece I could ever ask for,” said a devastated Halin, Everts’ 13-year-old sister.
Both families started verified GoFundMe accounts and all they wanted was “To get them back to Wyoming and laid to rest,” Desiree cried. “To have a beautiful funeral to say our goodbyes.”
Desiree also revealed that her daughter, her fiance, and their baby will be laid to rest together.
References:
https://www.abc27.com/national/family-killed-in-crash-after-birthday-celebration/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/9srcb2-funural?
https://www.gofundme.com/f/christina-and-emiliano-godines
Cover Image Source: GoFundMe
