'She was the motto YOLO': Friends and family come together to remember 3 killed in I-229 crash

The sting of diesel gas and cigarette smoke tinged the air as people gathered. To passersby, it might have looked like a regular car meet, where people come to ogle at fast cars with paper tags still attached. But, this community came to celebrate the young lives of three of their own.

Car windows were decorated in red, white, blue and the occasional green, all with the same statement “RIP Sean, Bree, Kali, Gone But Never Forgotten 7-22-21.” There were heart-shaped stickers with Sean, a birthdate, and a death date, on rear windows.

“This is something else, this makes me happy,” Carollena Kaultman-Fuler, 19, said in response to the nearly 70 people gathered at Spencer Park on Saturday night to remember the life of her cousin, Sean Morck, as well as Breeanne Gaffin and Kali Johnson. 

Morck, 22, Gaffin, 18, and Johnson, 16, died in a rollover crash on I-229 on the evening of July 22. 

At the memorial, people popped the hoods of the tricked-out cars and the Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth song “See You Again” blared from car speakers.

'An encourager'

Kaultman-Fuler, Sean’s cousin, said he was a caring person. Others echoed that sentiment.

“He was a really good friend. He was an encourager, he helped me through a lot of stuff,” 29-year-old Amber Snook said. She said they would go for drives around Sioux Falls and talk about life.

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'The Mother Goose-Type'

Kali Johnson’s father remembers his oldest daughter as the Mother Goose-type.

“Very protective of all her friends and family,” Kasey Johnson said. From her friends at church to those at the car club, she was fiercely protective of her little brother, making sure when they were younger that he never got too close to the edge of the park.

Johnson and his girlfriend laughed as they remembered how loud Kali could be especially when she was looking for strawberries in the fridge, or when she laughed at her own jokes. 

“She always had something to say,” Johnson said.

'The motto YOLO'

Jason Huston had known Bree Gaffin since she was 16 and had started hanging out with their car club. 

Bree “always had a smile on her face,” Huston, 48, said. “She wanted everyone to have fun and not be stupid. One of my greatest memories is she’d walk up and just hug you and say ‘smile.’ She’s just a sweetheart.

“I got to see a part of her and she definitely lived life to the fullest,” Huston said. “She was the motto YOLO, and she’ll just be really, really, really missed. It’s different without her being here.”

Huston also lives with his family near the area where the rollover happened and says that something needs to be done about the curve northbound on I-229 near the Cliff Avenue exit.

“This corner here could have better guardrails, I mean I think if it had semi-style guardrails they would still be here with us,” he said. “We live over there and seen several car accidents on that corner.”

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Later in the evening, around 9:15, people began making their way to their cars. Engines roared and one of the organized had to shout to be heard over the noise to make room in the caravan for Sean, Bree and Kali’s families. 

Police closed off the portion of Cliff Avenue near Spencer Park so the caravan could get on I-229 and have a cruise to the spot of the crash. Horns honked and emergency lights flashed as everyone took off in a line down the highway, going for one last ride with the members of their car family.