Pregnant Utah Woman Loses Husband and Two Children in Plane Crash: ‘She’s Planning Three Funerals at Once’
Utah mother Kristin Wells, who just learned last week that she’s expecting a baby girl, is now planning funerals for her Mormon bishop husband and two children who were killed in a plane crash over the weekend.
Randall Wells, who oversaw the LDS Church’s Mount Jordan 3rd Ward, and his 8-year-old son, Asher, and 3-year-old daughter, Sarah, died when their single-engine Cessna 172 crashed on Saturday, authorities confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune. Their bodies were found on Monday.
“Our beloved family members Randy, Asher and Sarah passed away this weekend in a private airplane crash. Although this is a really hard time for us, we are so very grateful for the outpour of support from the community,” Kristin’s brother, Dano Gillette, tells PEOPLE in a statement.
A search party of more than 100 people — on foot, horseback, ATVs, snowmobiles, and in helicopters and airplanes — were looking for the plane after the aircraft disappeared about 17 miles northwest of Wilson Peak, Utah, around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“We would like to thank the Iron, Piute, Beaver, Garfield and Sevier county police departments and search and rescue teams. We would like to share our love to all of the volunteers that came out the past two days to help search. And also those who expressed their love on social media. We can’t describe how grateful we are for the closure we received and that we were able to find the plane,” Gillette continues.