Unsolved Crime Keeps Week Family Coping

September 16, 1995

EDITOR’S NOTE: Life brings with it many joys and hardships for each of us. Families deal with trials such as death, terminal illness, drug abuse, divorce, suicide, depression, metal illness and a host of other tragedies.

What makes some people cope and grow stronger? How do they cope while others fold up and let the tragedy destroy them?

In the following article, David and Brenda Week try to cope with the death of their 11-year-old daughter, Deidre, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident last March. The crime is unsolved. In addition to losing their daughter, David lost his job last spring with no explanation.

The following article will relate how the Week family is coping with their daughter’s death and the crime investigation.

Future articles will appear showing how ordinary people cope with extraordinarily difficult problems.

If you know someone who is coping with an ordeal and has a story or help to others, call Sally Winkels at 844-2370.

By SALLY WINKELS

Marshfield News-Herald Correspondent

VESPER – David and Brenda Week lost their only daughter, 11-year-old Deidre, in a hit and run accident March 24.

Deidre was returning home on her bicycle from final play practice in Vesper. She was playing the part of Tothi, a thief in the play “Clever Judge” for 4-H Creative Arts Day to be held the following day.

David was outside and heard an impact at about 6 p.m. He paused a moment, then continued to feed the family’s four dogs. He thought it was time for Deidre to be home and he got into his pickup truck to pick her up along the road.

At the driveway’s end, he said, two cars drove past headed north. Five minutes had elapsed since he heard the impact.

He then found his daughter’s bike about two-tenths of a mile from their home and his daughter was lying in a wet ditch about three-tenths of a mile from home.

He held the unconscious Deidre briefly, then realizing no one was coming to help, he ran to a house 150-200 feet away and told the people to call 911. The people came out with Week and covered Deidre with a blanket. Week moved Deidre three feet out of the wet ditch and held her a moment. He realized he had to get home to his two other children and call his wife and family.

He left Deidre with the people on the scene with an ambulance on the way. She was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital but was pronounced dead after efforts were made to save her life.

“It’s hard to cope with the fact that the first person on the scene didn’t get help for her. I work at Wausau Hospital and know the difference a few minutes can make,” Brenda said.

Family and friends have helped them cope with their daughter’s death, the Weeks said.

“People we didn’t know would stop at our home and offer help,” Brenda said. “We had a wonderful church service and a candlelight vigil, which helped us.”

Deidre’s fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Molski, had her students design fabric squares in memory of Deidre. Classmates wrote: “She loves horses.” She loved hand lotion.” “She liked to smile.” “She had a refrigerator in her backpack full of candy.” The squares were stitched together and will hang in the Week home.

Deidre was involved in dancing, piano and viola lessons. She was a member of Hemlock Creek 4-H Club and lover her horse, rabbit and two cats.

“Where Deidre was, there was always something going on. I miss her giggle, fixing her hair, (her) using my clothes. I want her back,” Brenda said.

“I miss her tickling me and jumping on me,” David said.

Two-year-old Avery wonders when “Sissy is coming home on the bus.”

Brandon, 14, thinks of his sister when her cat, Mortimer, sleeps on his head. Her parents explained that Deidre would dress Mortimer up like a baby, put him in a cradle and feed him with a bottle. She also liked to fish and play softball with her older brother.

Brenda believes Deidre is helping her cope. A few weeks after her death, Brenda found in her daughters backpack a book titled “Summer to Die,” a book differing from her usual reading.

The last chapter has these words:

“Time goes on and your life is still there, and you have to live it. But there’s a whole world waiting still and there are good things in it.”

The Weeks, with the help if family and friends, built an elevated rock garden behind their home next to Deidre’s tree house. The garden is filled with many rocks, vines, flowers, fishpond, running water and souvenirs from Deidre’s classmates and family.

“When I get off my night shift, I’ll work in the garden for a couple of hours,” Brenda said. “It helps me to relax, before I have to go to bed.”

The state Department of Criminal Investigation of the Attorney General’s Office is working on the case.

“The investigator told us he was not working for the state or the county but was working for Deidre so we have hope they will find the hit-and-run driver,” David said.

Davis also lost his job without explanation. He believes it was political and related to the hit-and-run accident.

“I miss my fellow employees who started a memorial fund for Deidre,” he said.

The Week family made a vow when they buried their daughter to never give up until the hit-and-run driver is found.

Garden In Memory of Deidre

David and Brenda Week and their 2-year-old son, Avery, sit in the garden honoring their 11-year-old daughter, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in March. The state Department of Criminal Investigation of the Attorney General’s Office is trying to crack the unsolved crime.