Sam Craig lived at home with his parents and sister. He worked at the Holland House full time while studying online to be a personal fitness trainer. He was 21 years old.
“He was a caring person, but you wouldn’t know it just by talking to him,” mother Sharon Craig


said. “He would just do stuff out of the blue that was really thoughtful. He never volunteered to do things, but he would do anything you asked him to.”
Growing up, Sam was especially close to his sister, Lindsay. As they both got older, the two grew apart. However, they were known for defending each other no matter what.
“I would love days when he didn’t have his car and would drive around with me,” Lindsay said. “We didn’t get to do that often.”
On Aug. 24, Sam left home to go out with a friend from work, Dan. The boys met up with friends Trevor Cummings, Tanner Kiel, Jake Buerck, and Justin Boudreaux, who were celebrating
Trevor’s older brother’s birthday.
Dan left and Sam caught a ride home with Trevor who was driving Jake’s car. The boys were driving west down Elm Street over “Dead Man’s Hill” at nearly 85 mph. The car was “airboarding” over a hill, causing the driver to barely miss hitting another car and in turn, hit a fire hydrant. All except Jake were ejected from the car.
Jake was fine. Tanner and Justin had severe head injuries. Sam died at the scene with broken kneecaps, ribs, tibia, and pelvic. Trevor later died at the hospital. At 2:30 a.m., the police knocked on the Craigs’ door to ask them to identify their son’s body.
“I was in shock,” Sharon said. “I just couldn’t believe it. The whole time there I thought ‘No, maybe they’re wrong. Maybe it’s someone else.’”
Immediately following, the family had to make funeral arrangements. The service was held at Baue Funeral Homes on Aug. 28, just ten days after his 21st birthday.
“You kind of go through the motions without ever realizing the decisions you make,” Sharon said. “Nothing seems real. You still keep waiting for him to come home.”
The accident has taken a huge toll on Sam’s family. Their home is filled with “Sam shrines.” Photo collages from the funeral cover the living room, complimenting the framed photos lining the wall. The three keep to themselves have become more distant with one another. Sharon has not once gone a day without crying.
“It’s made me have to face the hardest thing in my life that I will ever have to go through, losing a child,” Sharon said. “The rest of my life should seem like a piece of cake.”
The family now focuses more on long-term aspects of life. Along with getting life insurance policies, and grave sites next to Sam’s, they have kept items from Sam’s life that were important to him, such as his toys from Kindergarten, graduation cap, the shoes he was wearing during the accident, and his unwashed clothes from the day before. The family put all of these items into a “memory box.” His aunt even made a blanket of all of Sam’s old clothes.
“We’re stuck in this time warp right now,” Sharon said. “We get up in the morning,
put one foot in front of the other, and get through the day. Your life feels like it’s in this rut, kind of like that song ‘A broken heart that’s still beating.’”
Since the accident, Lindsay has difficulty feeling enthused about anything in her life that she once loved. This includes school, friends, and even softball. She sometimes lies and says she’s busy so that she can stay home.
“People ask me if I’m OK and sometimes I lie to them,” Lindsay said. “It’s going to take longer than five months for me to get over this. To this day I still don’t think he’s dead. He’ll never be dead to me.”