Loved ones remember mother, daughter killed in DUI crash on SR 18
Oct 15, 2018, 8:57 AM
Maria Wong, 59, and her daughter Jasmine Lao, 21. .(KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
Two women were killed on State Route 18 on Friday morning. Maria Wong, 59, and her daughter Jasmine Lao, 21, were headed to work at the Snoqualmie Casino when, troopers said, a driver, who they suspect was under the influence of drugs, crossed the center line and killed them.
An online fundraiser has been started to help the family cover burial costs.
Michelle Lao, 22, told KIRO 7 how she found out about the devastating crash that killed her mother and sister. The family got a text from a co-worker at the Snoqualmie Casino around 8 a.m. on Friday, telling them the pair had never showed up for work. That’s when Michelle Lao checked her cellphone and saw the headline about an accident on Tiger Mountain that contained the words “Honda” and “two dead.”
“I couldn’t open them,” said Lao. “I handed the phone to my brother. That’s when the nightmare began.”
Lao told KIRO 7 her sister had just turned 21 on Oct. 3 and she’d bought tickets for them to go to Hong Kong in November, their second time this year.
“Everything reminds me of them, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to pick up the pieces. There’s so much more to say I could write a book. The two most important people in our lives were taken from us,” said Lao.
Troopers arrested Joshua Hannick, 36, of Lacey, for two counts of vehicular homicide. Court documents reveal Hannick was arrested for DUI in Gray’s Harbor County on Sept. 10. According to prosecutors Hannick admitted to the trooper he’d used narcotics and troopers found what they believe is heroin in his truck.
Prosecutors are waiting for the results of the toxicology report to file charges and say the backlog at the State Crime lab has them waiting.
Hannick was taken to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition after the crash, according to Washington State Patrol. When he is well enough he will be booked into the King County Jail.
Michelle Lao said her mother was a single mom who worked hard caring for her three children. Michelle Lao and her brother Phillip Lao, 19, are working on burial arrangements.
The siblings are asking for prayers and support as a they grieve. Michelle Lao provided a link to a Go Fund Me in her statement to KIRO 7.
By Alison Grande, KIRO 7
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