As word reached the families back in Arizona—two girls
dead, three critically injured—typical parental worry over a
college road trip turned to unspeakable grief. Abby’s parents
spent the next few days combing through the shock and horror,
planning the details of their daughter’s funeral while three
other parents prayed for their own children’s recovery, some of
whose bruises and swelling made them almost hard to
recognize as they lay in the hospital.
On Saturday, however, six days after the accident, hospital
officials informed two of the families that there had been a
horrible mistake. Two of the girls, who bore a striking
resemblance, had been misidentified. Parents who’d been
sitting by the bedside of a young woman they believed to be
their daughter were told the staggering news: she wasn’t their
daughter after all. Their daughter had actually died in the
accident. And Abby’s parents? They were given news they
could have never imagined receiving...
Abby wasn’t dead. She was alive.The initial shock of what they were hearing turned to
disbelief. Disbelief then turned to joy. But the joy was mingled,
too, with anger—anger that they’d been forced to live for six