CLALLAM BAY — When Yvette Kroeger’s only child turned 18 last summer, she threw a party with a few of his friends, showered him with a slew of toys from the Dollar Store and baked him a cake adorned simply with an “E.”
She also told him — directly within earshot of his pals — something she says she’ll remember forever.
“I said, ‘Your dad and I love you and are so proud of you,”‘ Kroeger said Saturday, choking back tears.
“E” was Erik Kroeger, a gregarious kid with a zest for life, a fixation on sports and a love for people obviously inspired by the parental affection of Yvette and Robert Kroeger.
There will be no more birthdays for Erik Kroeger, or for three of his good friends whose lives ended Saturday morning upside down in the muddy waters of the Pysht River.
A car carrying Kroeger, 20-year-old John Hubble, 18-year-old Damien Anderson and 16-year-old Cassidy Hunter hurtled off the road near Pysht, coming to rest about 10 feet down an embankment.
Investigators from the State Patrol say they probably died instantly.
The apparently sudden and violent crash stunned a small community inhabited by few strangers.
Almost everyone in the coastal burg knows each other, said Andrew Sayer, 27.
“I’ve known Cassidy forever — since he was 3,” Sayer said after learning of the tragedy.
News of the crash spread quickly around the remote town, but it took a few hours before most knew which of their native sons had perished.
