Rock thrown at her car put her in the ICU. Fundraiser is trying to help her recover
Tiffany Sciara had seen her employee moments before the aggravated assault that would leave her in the intensive care unit for days.
After picking up her sons last Tuesday night, Sciara saw she had four missed calls from her employee Eva Kearney, who she had just seen at a training for The Grove Spa staff. When she called back, Kearney’s mother picked up and said her daughter couldn’t make it to work the next day.
Someone had thrown a rock through Kearney’s window while she was driving near 72nd Street and Sycamore Avenue, striking her in the head and landing her in the hospital for the past week. She was just recently moved from intensive care to the trauma unit.
Since the incident, Sciara has talked with Kearney’s mom every day to learn about her progress, and she created a GoFundMe to help Kearney’s family pay for medical bills and rehabilitation.
“I know her parents, and they are just so focused on their daughter and their granddaughter and not even thinking about what impact the medical bills are going to have down the road.” she said, “I wanted to do something.”
Between her stays in the ICU and now the trauma unit as well as rehabilitation from her head injury, Kearney’s medical bills will likely be “astronomical,” Sciara said.
So far, the page has raised more than $30,000, and Sciara hopes to continue raising money so that Kearney, a mother of one who has worked at the spa for nearly two years, can have one less thing to worry about.
“Eva’s the most kind, wonderful, amazing person,” Sciara said. “She’s an excellent employee. She’s always such a hard worker, and I just felt like we had to do something to help raise awareness to what happened to her.”
Since the incident, Sciara said other people have reached out with similar stories of having rocks thrown at them. She’s hoping that if enough people learn about this incident and come forward, authorities will find whoever hurt Kearney.
Police have said they believe an unknown suspect vehicle was driving through the area and throwing rocks at vehicles that night. Because of her condition, Kearney has not been able to give a statement to officials.
Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman with the Kansas City Police Department, said Kearney was likely driving her white Lexus HS southbound on Interstate 435 from 63rd Street when the rock hit her vehicle.
Police are asking anyone who saw the Lexus or sustained damage to their vehicle around the same time to call assault unit detectives at 816-234-5227.
By continuing to raise awareness, Sciara said she hopes the person who injured Kearney will be found and arrested.
“I don’t want it to just fall by the wayside and then just be another crime that happened,” Sciara said. “This does not have to happen again. We need to get justice for Eva and make sure that people feel safe when they’re driving.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2022 at 3:07 PM.
