Five girls are without a mother after a train hit and killed her on Christmas Eve. The Missouri mom was driving home in the middle of the night when her car somehow ended up on train tracks. Now, in the wake of her tragic death, police are trying to figure out why her car was on the tracks in the first place.
With the loss of their mother, the girls are now in the care of their grandmother. As she mourns her daughter, the older woman is stepping back into a child care role that she never anticipated. Thankfully, members of their community, including the Ferguson Police Department, have stepped up to help the family through this trying time.
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She died in the early hours of Christmas Eve.
Ashley Hogan, 35, a single mother of five girls in St. Louis, died when a train struck her car shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
“We know the vehicle traveled off the roadway for really an unknown reason became stuck in the gravel area beside the railroad tracks,” Cpl. Dallas Thompson of the Missouri Highway Patrol told First Alert 4. Highway Patrol is investigating how Hogan’s car ended up on the train tracks. It is also investigating whether Ashley Hogan had a medical incident before the train hit her car.
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Her family is in total shock.
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the reality of I no longer have my daughter, and they no longer have their mom,” the woman’s mother, Vernadine Hogan, told the outlet. Ashley Hogan leaves behind five girls between the ages of 6 and 15.
“I never in my wildest imagination thought that at my age I would be taken on raising five children and I am starting over from scratch,” Vernadine Hogan added.
Ashley's Hogan was on her way from work when she was killed.
Vernadine Hogan shared that her granddaughters are “very heartbroken” by the loss of their mother. “I know that they’re shattered internally,” she added. “She would always try to figure out what can I do to top the last Christmas,” the grandmother said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this year.”
Currently, her focus is on the girls and their well-being. “I don’t want them to think if she would have never walked out the door, if she would have never got in the car, if she had never went to work,” she said. “I want them to remember that she loved them so much.”
Ferguson Police are collecting donations for Ashley Hogan's girls.
Ferguson Police Officer Andrae Spraggin was a friend of Ashley Hogan’s from high school. The police officer wanted to do something for her daughters during this unimaginable time. So he started collecting donations at the police department for them.
“Ashley was a good person, a good friend and at this time her daughters are the most important thing in the world right now,” he told First Alert 4. Even though they didn’t officially start collecting donations until December 30, “already we’ve received clothing and gift cards over the past weekend so the community has reached out and showed out,” he explained.
“There is still an overwhelming support of humanity to support Ashley her five children and her mother now,” Spraggin said.
The family has a long road ahead of them.
“All I can say is I am so grateful and I am so thankful grateful and thankful of the immense support the community’s provided,” Vernadine Hogan said. “I’m almost 60, I never would’ve thought in a million years I’m going to be raising children again but here I am, here it is, we all miss my daughter very much.”
Vernadine Hogan has started a GoFundMe to help her and her granddaughters as they move through this “sudden life-changing event.” In addition to things the girls need, funds will also go to help with Ashley Hogan’s funeral expenses.
