WARRENSBURG, Mo. — A Colorado teen has been on a challenging journey to recovery, both physically and emotionally, after losing three generations of her family in a tragic accident caused by another teen who fell asleep at the wheel in June.
“Obviously he didn’t mean to kill three people, but he took my entire family from me,” Alex Moffett, 19, of Erie, Colorado, said.
Her father Derek Moffett, 55, and grandmother Patricia Moffett, 83, died at the scene in Warrensburg, Mo. She was airlifted to Research Medical Center in Kansas City from that crash along with her sister, Catherine Moffett, 16. Only she survived.
It’s approaching the time of year Alex remembers her little sister dancing the Nutcracker with the Kansas City Ballet before they moved to Erie, Colorado, outside Denver. Or the time she’d look forward to Thanksgiving dinner with her dad and grandma.
“Every time I look at a picture of my sister my heart just stops for a minute. It’s really hard to just process. My dad was my best friend ever, he was the best person,” Alex said in an interview Monday.
The dad and teenage daughters traveled this summer to see the girls’ grandmother in Overland Park, Kansas, but mostly so the girls could see Chris Stapleton.
“My grandma was taking us to Warrensburg because she grew up there, so she just wanted to show us around,” she said.
They went to the cemetery where her family was buried and had lunch before approaching the intersection of Missouri Highway 50 and Business Route 50.
A-16 year-old driver of a truck who the Missouri Highway Patrol says was asleep at the wheel left the road went airborne and struck their SUV killing Derek and Patricia Moffett instantly. Catherine died at the hospital after donating her organs.
“It’s been hard for sure, but it does hope in a really weird way that she was able to live on in the people she was able to save,” Alex said.
The physical toll on the Montana State student has been equally grueling. She’s had to have facial reconstruction, elbow replacement and wrist surgery after suffering a punctured lung and multiple fractures to her, pelvis, ribs, arm, wrist and orbital bones.
While she was still at Research Medical Center, one of her surgeons managed to connect with the country music star who she and her family had planned to see in concert.
“We were supposed to just have a Facetime with him and they called and were like we are in really bad service, we’ll call you back in a few minutes. Like a minute later, we got a knock on my door and they just came in.”
Stapleton sang her his song “Traveller,” which he wrote after his dad’s death, as he came back to Kansas City a few days after his concert to visit Alex on Father’s Day.
It’s perhaps part of how the teen who’s gone through the unimaginable has been able to put things in perspective. She’s still in physical therapy. She says she’s thankful for everyone who cared for her and her sister and is learning not to take a minute for granted.
The other driver who has not been charged as the Missouri Highway Patrol continues its investigation, Alex says, “part of me wants his life to be over and the other part of me wants him to just be able to go on and live a really good life and make something of it and make a difference in the world.”
Alex Moffett remained at home in Colorado with her mother for her rehabilitation where she’s also working part time at a Dairy Queen. A GoFundMe was created to help with medical expenses.
She says she plans to return to Montana State next semester, where she’s majoring in construction engineering technology. In early December, she plans to go to Las Vegas to finally be able to see Chris Stapleton in concert.
