A mother and daughter died last week in Wrangell after their car went off a road, according to the Wrangell Police Department.
Two other children were flown to Seattle for their injuries, WPD Chief Doug McCloskey said Tuesday. The mother, 32-year-old Rainie Doak, was driving, and her 7-year-old daughter Stacy was also killed in the crash. McCloskey said the cause of the crash has not been determined yet, but accelerated driving appears to be a factor.
Nobody in the car was wearing seat belts, McCloskey said, and all the passengers were ejected from the car as it flipped down an embankment. The other girls are 12 and 3 years old, McCloskey said.
Friends of the family set up a GoFundMe page entitled “Doak Family,” which raised more than $10,000 in its first seven days. The page is still accepting donations for travel, medical and lodging expenses.
The crash is believed to have occurred around midnight as Sunday, June 10 turned to Monday, June 11, McCloskey said, as Doak and her children were coming home from being out the road south of Wrangell. The car was not found until the following evening as a man on his bike was passing the scene and saw the car off the road, McCloskey said.
Police arrived at the scene just before 6 p.m. June 11, McCloskey said, to find that the car had flipped. EMTs quickly got the two surviving passengers away from the scene and on a plane to Seattle, McCloskey said. He said he has not heard any official update, but the word around town is that the two surviving daughters’ conditions are improving in Seattle.
McCloskey said fatal car crashes are very rare in Wrangell.
“In 26 years of being here, this is the third,” McCloskey said.
The police investigation is still continuing, McCloskey said, and they’re waiting for the State Medical Examiner’s Office to get back to them with toxicology reports.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
