A couple died Thursday after a redwood tree fell on their car and crushed them.
Jake Woodruff, 35, and his wife, Jessica, 45, were on their way from Yreka to Oregon to celebrate Jessica birthday. The couple was killed instantly, according to their cousin, Emma Miravalle Hood.
The Woodruffs leave behind five children ranging in age from 8 to 24.
“It’s the most unusual incident I’ve seen in my 19-year career,” Brandy Gonzalez, a public information officer with the CHP in Crescent City told WHNT-19.
Friends and family of the couple created a Go Fund Me page for their five children.
“The two adult children are from Jessica’s prior marriage and they have immediately stepped up to take on raising their younger siblings that share Jake and Jessica as parents,” Miravalle said via email Sunday. “This family and these parents were such a humble, fun-loving pair that knew they were soulmates at the moment they met.”
Jake Woodruff was driving his 2016 Honda Accord southbound on U.S. 199 north of Walker Road at about 11:49 a.m. Thursday when a large redwood tree fell from the east side of the highway, according to a California Highway Patrol news release.
The tree fell directly on top of the car, crushing the passenger compartment, according to the CHP. Jessica and Jake Woodruff suffered fatal injuries as a result.
“We are brokenhearted and are trying to do as much as we can to ensure the children have, at the very least, no financial hardships as they learn to grieve their parents in addition to navigating childhood and parenthood,” Hood wrote.