An Overland Park family lost 3 generations in a car wreck. The other driver walked away
Three generations of one Overland Park family, out enjoying a sightseeing trip to explore the matriarch’s hometown. A teenage driver who allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel. A fatal crash, turning an afternoon outing into a tragedy that’s left a family in mourning.
For Susan Moffett Barrick, who now lives in California, getting the news of the June 10 crash is a searing memory. An Overland Park native, she frequently traveled back home to Kansas to care for her father, who died last October. She felt like she was just coming to grips with his death when this calamity struck.
“It was like a meteor came down,” Barrick told The Star.
Barrick and her husband sat in the living room of her childhood home one overcast morning in late September, telling their story. A cardboard photo of Barrick’s mother, Patricia Moffett, stood between them. Patricia Moffett’s baby grand piano, purchased with bonds her grandparents left her for college, sat just five feet away, with a music book still propped open on top.
Patricia Moffett — one of three family members killed in the crash — sang for local Kansas City bands, her daughter recalled. It was one of several jobs Moffett used to help pay bills and save for college, she said, recounting one of many memories.
According to the initial crash report, just before 1 p.m. June 10, Patricia Moffett was driving a car with her son and his two teenage daughters through Warrensburg on a family trip. Moffett was waiting to get onto U.S. 50 Highway from Business 50 Highway when a truck drifted off U.S. 50 and was briefly airborne, before t-boning the matriarch’s SUV as it returned to the ground.
The 16-year-old driver of the truck told the Missouri State Highway Patrol that he fell asleep at the wheel, according to the report. He was taken to Missouri Western Medical Center with minor injuries.
‘It’s just black’
Patricia Moffett, 83, and her son Derek Moffett, 55, were killed in the wreck. Her granddaughters Catherine and Alexandria Moffett were airlifted to Research Medical Center in Kansas City, but only one would survive.
Susan Barrick couldn’t believe the news.
“You get that phone call and it’s just not real,” Barrick said. “I was checking the weather, and trying to remember how I packed when things were normal. It was just very hard.”
Alexandria Moffett, 19, who survived the crash, said just before the wreck, her grandmother was showing the family around the area where she grew up and planned to quiz them about what they learned at the end of the trip. She told herself to remember that her sister was getting baptized, and she was going to be her sister’s godmother. That’s the last thing she remembered before the wreck.
“It’s like a light switch went off. It’s just black,” Alexandria Moffett said, describing the moment of impact.
Susan Barrick and her husband, Chuck, quickly booked flights, and were in Kansas City that same evening.
In Patricia Moffett’s Overland Park home, the Barricks said they found a house filled with fresh reminders of the loved ones they had suddenly lost. Patricia Moffett’s bed was made, and Derek Moffett had left a gifted bike for Chuck Barrick in the garage, an example of the father’s love for cycling and giving nature, Susan Barrick said. The couple barely slept that night.
“Next morning you wake up, it hits you all over again,” she said. “But then it’s like, we got to pull it together and get to the hospital, because my two nieces are there, and they’re still alive.”
Catherine Moffett, 16, died from her injuries two days later. Her organs were donated to six recipients.
Alexandria Moffett had become the family’s sole survivor of the wreck. Among her injuries: six cracked ribs, a pelvis fractured in three spots, a shattered left wrist and a broken left humerus.
After the deaths of the other family members, the family’s focus was shifted fully to her recovery.
“We didn’t have to think about Trish or Derek,” Chuck Barrick said. “And then when Catherine was gone, all our focus went on to Alexandria.”
Alexandria Moffett’s mother told her she was on pain medicine and not fully present when she learned of her sister’s death. She still doesn’t remember much in the days before and after the wreck. Her mother told her she initially had no reaction to the news.
But now, that terrible reality has left the entire family reeling, remembering the loved ones who didn’t get to say their goodbyes.
Patricia Moffett was a free-spirited elementary school teacher and counselor who was a faithful volunteer with the American Cancer Society as a breast cancer survivor. Derek Moffett was a third-generation Eagle Scout and was a “walking encyclopedia” who worked in the technical controls industry. A cycling enthusiast, he often built his own bikes, and loved hiking, climbing and skiing his way around the world.
Catherine Moffett was a bubbly teenage ballerina, Susan Barrick said, and an artist who also volunteered at the Humane Society and Denver Homeless Shelter in Colorado. Patricia Moffett’s extroverted, charitable behavior had become a prevalent characteristic of many in her family.
Alexandria Moffett called her father her best friend in the world, and described her grandmother as a saint. As for her younger sister, she said Catherine was just coming out of some struggles in her young life.
But to Chuck Barrick, Catherine is remembered as the curious toddler he first met years prior when he was first introduced to the family at a breakfast; a child who stayed quiet and stared as the family bombarded him with questions. His attempts to get her to crack any facial expression fell short.
As the breakfast continued, Catherine moved to sit in his lap. The two were inseparable after.
“I was giving attention to other people and then she grabs my hand, and she says, ‘You love me,’” Chuck Barrick said. “I never forget that.”
‘That made a huge change’
Alexandria Moffett stayed in Research Medical Center for 12 days, recovering from her injuries and processing her grief.
But a surprise visitor in the hospital helped lift her spirits: country music star Chris Stapleton.
The family was supposed to see Stapleton perform at T-Mobile Center on the day of Catherine Moffett’s death, and a doctor at the hospital had a loose connection to him.
What was supposed to be a phone call turned into an in-person visit from Chris Stapleton and his wife, singer-songwriter Morgane Stapleton, that included concert merchandise and a personal concert from the couple. Morgane Stapleton also gifted Alexandria Moffett a Saint Christopher necklace, the patron saint of travelers associated with protection to travelers and good fortune.
The Stapletons even visited on Father’s Day, which made the surprise even more notable for her.
“They have four kids back home. So that was just extra special that he took his time out of his Father’s Day to be with me and my mom,” Alexandria Moffett said.
“That made a huge change in Alexandria,” Chuck Barrick said. “She was just all smiles the whole time till she left [the hospital].”
All along, love and support poured out for the family both in Kansas, and at Derek Moffett’s Colorado home.
Friends brought food and visited the hospital. An honor walk was held for Catherine Moffett before her organs were donated. There was a simultaneous candlelight vigil in Kansas and Colorado, as well as a celebration of life in Colorado. Warrensburg residents reached out to the family with thoughts and prayers, and a battalion chief who was on the airlift after the crash visited the hospital.
But once Alexandria Moffett left the hospital, the Barricks were left with their own grief inside of Patricia Moffett’s now-empty home.
“Now we’ve got to just be here,” Chuck Barrick said. “It was really hard. It was harder at that point because we didn’t have somebody or something to focus on.”
The recovery process has been arduous for Alexandria Moffett, who’s been questioning everything as the lone survivor of the wreck.
“At first I was struggling a lot with if there was some kind of existential decision that was made and they chose me over them,” she said. “I know my dad would have wanted it to be me. I think my sister would have wanted it to be me, and of course, my grandma would have wanted it to be me.
“That sounds terrible to say and it feels terrible to say, but I mean, it is what it is. We can’t really go back in time. Of course, I think it should not have been my sister and my dad and my grandma, right? But there’s nothing I can do about it now, so I kind of just have to live with it, and that’s something I’ve come to terms with.”
‘He took the lives of this family’
For Susan Barrick, the road ahead is unclear. Her niece and her cousins are the only family members she has left. She has no idea how the celebrations of life for her loved ones will impact her.
“I guess we’ll have to see,” she said. “When I’m here at the house, it kind of feels like nothing’s happened. My family’s around me. I don’t know how that works. Like, is it gonna, you know, start, hitting me or, you know, I don’t know.”
Alexandria Moffett is more focused on physically recovering from the wreck as she mentally processes the event. She has physical therapy twice a week, at least one doctor’s appointment a week and is taking classes at a local community college. Coming back for these celebrations will be her first time in the Kansas City area since the crash.
“That part is definitely going to be hard for me,” she said. “But I think overall, completing the services will be helpful for both me and my mom.”
MSHP is still investigating the crash. Susan Barrick wants the teen driver to be held responsible.
“I want him to know that he took the lives of this family,” she said. She paused briefly. “I don’t want him to be like, tortured his whole life about it, or anything. There should be some sort of accountability, but I don’t know what that looks like.”
Alexandria Moffett is conflicted, alternating between empathy and accountability, since the driver is the same age as her departed sister.
“Part of me wants him to just be able to go on and have a really good life,” she said.
But she gave the driver who changed her family’s lives in an instant an ultimatum.
“After doing something as bad as this, all I can say is he better do something good with his life, and he better not mess it up,” she said. “But then, of course, the other part of me wants justice for my family. So I’m not really sure yet.”
The celebration of life for Derek and Catherine Moffett is on Oct. 5 at Johnson County Funeral Chapel beginning at 3 p.m. The celebration of life for Patricia Moffett is at Prairie Elementary, one of the schools where she taught, on Oct. 6 beginning at 2 p.m.
This story was originally published September 26, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
