Medical examiner identifies 6 people killed in Fort Worth I-35 pileup crash
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the six people who were killed Thursday in a pileup of over 100 vehicles on I-35W in Fort Worth.
Those who died include Tiffany Louann Gerred, 34, of Northlake; Aaron Luke Watson, 45, of Fort Worth; Christopher Ray Vardy, 49, of Boyd; William Darrell Williams, 54, of Pahoa, Hawaii; Michael Henry Wells, 47, of Justin; and Tamara Fatima Mendoza Querales, 46, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Mendoza Querales’ address wasn’t provided.
As the commute to work began just after 6 a.m. Thursday, cars, pickup trucks and 18-wheelers collided on an icy half-mile section in the southbound express lanes of I-35W near downtown, authorities said. Police said 133 vehicles were involved in the crash.
Six people died on the interstate. Others were trapped and rescued by firefighters. Sixty-five people were injured.
Tiffany Gerred
Tiffany Gerred’s father, Juan Gerred, told the Star-Telegram late Thursday morning that his daughter hadn’t shown up for work and she was not answering her phone. He decided to go to the family reunification center set up by the city at Riverside Community Center to get information.
He and his family waited at the center, hoping to hear any information on his daughter, but at that time they didn’t know what happened to her.
“There are a lot of Jane Does and John Does still,” Juan Gerred said. “We can only hope for the best and will go from there.”
Tiffany Gerred had worked for Tarrant County for almost five years, serving as the lead clerk in the 360th Family Court in Fort Worth for about two years.
“She was a joy to be around. So sweet and fun, but also professional and a good worker,” said Brittni Forbis, 360th court coordinator, in a Friday email. “This is a sad loss for everyone that knew her.”
Her family started a GoFundMe account to raise money for Gerred’s funeral expenses and to help her 11-year-old daughter.
“In-short Tiffany was an amazingly beautiful person,” her family wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Fiercely loyal to everyone blessed enough to be in her family, or to call her friend. She was a woman of faith and, despite being the youngest of five children, and the only girl; Tiffany had a sweet, loving spirit.
Christopher Vardy
Vardy was a longtime volunteer and leader at First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth.
“It’s a tragic loss for the church,” said senior pastor Tim Bruster in a telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Friday. “He’s been very active in the church for 22 years.”
Vardy’s wife is Tamara Vardy, the superintendent of the Boyd school district.
Boyd school officials released this statement Friday afternoon: “Dr. Tamara Vardy and her family greatly appreciate the outpouring of love and support you are giving them during this difficult time.
Mr. Vardy loves his family very much and is so proud of his wife and two boys. Most recently he became a part of the Boyd ISD family. You would find him at Cross Country meets riding the mule, attending One Act Play performances, and cheering from the sidelines and stands for football, basketball, and baseball.”
The Vardy family said In lieu of flowers, the family was requesting memorial gifts be made to First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth; designate Youth Ministry Fund, 800 West 5th Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102.
Vardy had served on the church’s youth council and other leadership roles for years.
“He was so involved in mission trips as a worker and a sponsor,” Bruster said. “He never missed an opportunity to help.”
Bruster said that Vardy was probably known by and worked with hundreds of people in the church.
Vardy worked as a program manager at InterConnect Wiring, a Fort Worth-based company that supplies military aerospace electrical products, according to a LinkedIn profile in his name.
“He was a friend to many people,” the senior pastor said. “He’s going to be missed.”
Aaron Watson
Friends of Aaron Watson who awoke to the news of his death on Friday morning were immediately filled with memories of a man who had a sweet personality that could fill a room with light, with a rich country baritone that sounded a lot like Garth Brooks.
After the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office released his identity early Friday, some who knew him from his time at Navarro College in Corsicana took to Facebook to share tributes to a good friend who grew into a loving father, with a young daughter and young son.
Alyssa Dunnahoe, 47, of Corsicana, saw a post in a Facebook group for the choir group she had been in with Watson. She broke down into tears.
They met when they were both in the top choir troupes at Navarro in the mid-1990s. She arrived thinking of herself as “a big fish in a small pond,” she said over the phone Friday, but heard Watson belt Garth Brooks’ “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places” in a cowboy hat and realized he was the superstar. His deep singing voice, imbued with a country twang, led everyone to believe “he was going to be famous someday,” Dunnahoe said.
She formed a tight bond with him and others in the choir, and they would eventually spend long nights together at her mother’s cabin singing songs, or playing games, or just talking. Watson, she said, was always a caring and upbeat person to have around.
She said she kept up with him over the years through Facebook but, after Friday morning, began wishing she had spoken with him more, or had the opportunity to speak with him again.
He worked as a managing partner for Jason’s Deli in North Texas. His family became his pride and joy.
“He was like a light,” Dunnahoe said. “He had a big smile and a big heart.”
Friends of his couldn’t yet say on Friday where he was heading on Thursday morning when he became involved in one of the worst tragedies to ever occur on Fort Worth’s interstates. The medical examiner reported he died of multiple blunt force injuries.
As those close to him try to grapple with his absence from their lives, they are also trying to help the family he leaves behind. A page on the website Meal Train had raised $7,570 as of Friday afternoon and scores of people have volunteered to bring the family meals every day through March 31. Most wrote the family is in their prayers.
On Facebook, Jayda Herrera, who knew Watson through her job at Jason’s Deli in Grand Prairie, posted he would hop around from store to store. He was “a very nice man,” she wrote, who never became angry with his staff.
“It’s just very sad,” Herrera wrote in her post.
David Timmerman, 78, was Watson’s choir director at Navarro, and even recruited him when he was a high school student at Waxahachie High School who had a standout audition. His wife, Linda Timmerman, 74, was the academic dean at Navarro when he went to college and got to know him as a student and a choir member.
He was a popular guy in college, with no shortage of friends, and always kind and giving, the husband and wife remembered. He would help the tech crew build sets for the musicals, which he also starred in. He was one of the leads in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel,” opposite Dunnahoe.
He loved to sing country western songs, David and Linda said. He had a warm smile that rubbed off on whoever he was smiling at.
“Once you met him and he smiled at you — it was always one of those smiles you just soaked in,” Linda said. “You could just tell that he cared for everybody he came in contact with.”
The couple, who are retired from Navarro, have a stack of old photos of Watson from choir and from college shows, as well as VHS recordings of musicals. They were planning to get in touch with the college in the hopes they can share what they have and possibly digitize the video tapes.
Denise Kelly Wright, 44, of Fort Worth, knew Watson when she, too, was in the college choir in the mid-90s.
She remembers his beautiful singing voice, and how he comforted her when she was a freshman and was having a hard time being away from home.
“He was a very kind person and always seemed to care,” Wright said in a Facebook message. “He made me feel right at home.”
Staff writer Kaley Johnson contributed to this report.
