myAJC.com
Follow our coverage, including past articles, at our premium website, myAJC.com
How to help
To donate to the Howard children, go to www.gofundme.com/wreckonhalloween
The eldest of four children who lost their parents in a Halloween afternoon crash is stunned by the generosity of friends and strangers, who have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help them begin new lives.
“I’m thankful for people helping,” Justin Stoesser, 13, said Friday.
His parents, Donald and Crystal Howard, were killed in a single-car wreck Saturday as they returned from a store where the Morgan County couple had bought extra trick-or-treat candy and face paint. A Georgia trooper who got the call about a fatal wreck spent hours with the quartet until relatives from Florida arrived to take the youngsters home with them.
Trooper First Class Nathan Bradley's actions, and the children's plight touched a national soft spot and touched off a flood of donations that shows few signs of slowing. By late Friday afternoon, a GoFundMe site Bradley had set up for Justin and his siblings, Amiah, Daimean and Tayvion Howard, had approached $400,000 in donations.
In addition, a Union City car dealership announced it was giving a mini-van to the kids’ relatives. Others rallied to look after their pets.
Bradley was delighted with the response from friends and strangers. He’d hoped to raise $7,000 with the online site to pay for the parents’ funeral.
“I hope it’s boosted the morale of the nation and I hope it’s made the public trust law enforcement more,” said Bradley, 24, who chose to stay with the children Halloween night instead of placing them in protective services.
The donations — by Friday, more than 10,000 people had given — came from just down the road to across the nation. Some gave a few dollars, while others dug deeper.
“My heart broke when I read this story,” Mark Fischbach, who gave $5,000, wrote on the funding site. “Money can’t fix this pain but hopefully it’ll ensure that the kids don’t have other things to worry about in the future.”
A Union City car dealer felt the same way. When he learned about the fatal crash, Joey Lonsdale of Ivory Chevrolet looked at a Chrysler Town and Country mini-van at the firm’s used-car lot. It had been on the site for a couple of weeks. Lonsdale decided that was long enough.
The dealership is giving the van — black, with 42,000 miles, worth about $18,000 — to the family.
“It hit home with me, that tragedy,” said Lonsdale, the dealership’s finance director. “They need that van a lot more than we do.”
Others pitched in to rescue animals left at the Howard household; with the kids in Florida, their futures were uncertain.
Melissa Milam of Marietta promptly rescued Sherlock Holmes, Kate Beckett, Olivia Benson and Elliott Ness — each a Schnauzer, each suddenly homeless. The kids’ grandmother said she couldn’t take the dogs.
"I didn't hesitate," said Milam, a volunteer with the Homeless Pets Foundation, a Marietta pet-rescue group.
Friday afternoon, the four dogs were snoozing in her house. Milam sounded like she could use one, too. Schnauzers, she noted, are active creatures.
Each animal will be neutered this coming week, she said. The foundation also will be accepting applications from people wanting to adopt the dogs. By late Friday, more than 60 had applied to take one home.
“I promised the kids we’d take care of them,” Milam said. “I really want to find good homes for them.”
The kids, meantime, are staying with the grandmother in Sarasota. They’re in a three-bedroom house. Their aunt, Sharlee Dismuke, also lives there with her son. Another niece lives there, too.
Suddenly, “It’s not just four kids,” Dismuke said in an earlier interview. “It’s six.”
A house that was home for four now holds eight. The family wants to use the donations to build a considerably larger home to accommodate a family that doubled in one tragic moment.
About the Author
