Friend starts fundraiser for family members killed in I-485 wreck in Charlotte
A friend of the family members killed in the crash in Charlotte on Saturday that killed six has started a fundraiser to help with funeral costs.
One person, a 16-year-old girl, survived.
The girl’s name hasn’t been released, but a fundraiser posted on SpotFund to help the families said she’s the sister of crash victim Taylor Willis, 23.
“I’m asking with all I have if anyone can please donate to help this family they are amazing people and are very dear to me,” the fundraiser organizer said in the post. “I wanna pray in gods name please heal the family and be with them through this hard time bring them comfort all donations will be going for them to help with funeral expenses. God bless.”
The 16-year-old and Willis were traveling in a Chrysler van with Willis’s boyfriend, Samuel Jacob Holmes, 27, who was driving when the crash occurred at 11:07 a.m. near Wilkinson Boulevard. Also inside the van were Willis’s cousin Kamron Wood, 8, and her two children, Brynlyn Holmes, 1, and Addyson Holmes, 3.
All but the 16-year-old were killed. MEDIC said her injuries were not life-threatening.
State Highway Patrol Master Trooper Robert Rogers said a teenage driver in a Honda CR-V switched from the center lane to the right lane, colliding with the van, sending the vehicles off the right side of the highway into a parked tractor trailer.
The CR-V’s driver, Logan Paul Sauer, 16, of Mooresville, was killed in the crash.
The tractor-trailer driver was uninjured, the trooper said.
The fundraiser has raised nearly $7,000 of its $10,000 goal as of Monday afternoon. The organizer could not be immediately reached Monday.
This story was originally published July 28, 2025 at 2:04 PM.
