Photo: Anthony Dean/Facebook
A North Dakota couple and their two young daughters were found dead in their car on Friday, more than a day after their vehicle veered off the road as they traveled to visit their relatives on Thanksgiving morning, reports say.
Chelsi and Anthony Dean, both 25, were found dead along with their daughters, Kaytlin, 5, and 20-month-old Avri Dean, in their 2017 Toyota 4Runner in a Montana creek around 8 p.m. on Friday — several hours after they were expected to arrive in Ekalaka, Montana, to spend the holiday with relatives,according to theBillings Gazette.
From left: Chelsi, Kaytlin, and Anthony Dean.Anthony Dean/Facebook
Dean-Webbwrote in a Facebook postthat the family had been visiting with her in Caldwell, Idaho, on Wednesday before setting off for Ekalaka. They were reported missing and Dean-Webb enlisted the help of the public to find the group as deputies with Montana’s Carter County Sheriff’s Office led the search.
“Nobody has heard from them in over 24 hours now,” she wrote on Friday. “The last communication was from her phone to her Grandma saying they were leaving Billings headed her way and they would see her around 11. They never showed up for Thanksgiving dinner.”
Montana Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE.
Avri (left) and Kaytlin Dean.Chelsi Kay Dean/Facebook
The family was traveling eastbound on Interstate 94 and had been towing another vehicle on a trailer when their car veered off the road around 7 a.m. and went into the median, Montana Highway Patrol officials told theGazette. The car then flew off an embankment and struck a bridge support pillar before landing nose down in Pryor Creek.
They all died at the scene, according to the publication.
She continued: “Kaytlin was a Grandma’s girl from the moment she was born. Avri was a mama’s girl and didn’t know me until a few weeks after she was born, but warmed up to me before long.”
Dean-Webb did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE.
Kaytlin (left) and Avri Dean.Anthony Dean/Facebook
Anthony was a member of the Manvel North Dakota Volunteer Fire Department and the Air Force. Officials with the Grand Forks Air Force Base mourned theloss in a statement shared on Facebook.
“Words are not enough during a time like this,” Maj. Eric Inkenbrandt, 69th Maintenance Squadron commander, said in the statement.
“AJ’s family brought a light to our maintenance community, and this loss strikes each of us deeply. May their friends and family be granted the strength and serenity to get through this sorrowful time.”
source: people.com
