Pregnant Mom Loses Husband, Two Kids in an Instant

Husband was flying their 2 kids home from a Phoenix wedding
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2017 7:10 AM CST
Pregnant Mom Loses Husband, Two Kids in an Instant
Kristin Wells, right, has lost her husband and two children in a private plane crash.   (GoFundMe)

A pregnant mother who learned last week that she is expecting a daughter is now going through the unimaginable: planning the funerals of her husband and older two children. Randall Wells, a Mormon bishop and experienced pilot, was flying his single-engine Cessna 172 home to Utah from a wedding in Phoenix when it went down for unknown reasons in bad weather, reports People. Their 8-year-old son, Asher, and 3-year-old daughter, Sarah, were on board, and the Garfield County sheriff has confirmed that there were no survivors, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.

After more than 100 people from six counties combed the area on foot, horseback, ATV, snowmobile, and in helicopters and planes, the family's wrecked plane—which disappeared 17 miles northwest of Wilson Peak, Utah, around 8:30pm Saturday—was found just after 11am Monday, reports the Deseret News. "Randy was a beacon in the community," says one member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints meetinghouse that Wells oversaw. "The (Wellses) are widely beloved and Kristin is a friend to everyone she meets." A GoFundMe page quickly surpassed $100,000 to help Kristin Wells bury her family and raise her unborn daughter as a single mother. (Three lives were just lost in another plane crash, this one damaging homes in California.)

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