Parents Mourn Son and Daughter-in-law Killed by Illegal Truck Driver

This November marks exactly one year since my son Billy and his beautiful wife Jenny died in a terrible car crash. No parent ever expects to face such an anniversary, the death of their child. In another world, our family would be celebrating their first wedding anniversary together. That world is not ours. I will never hold my son again or see his dimples as he grins. I cannot hug my daughter-in-law close either. Billy will never become a father to have his own family. Jenny will never work as the piano technician she always dreamed of being. And I will never tell them I love them one more time.

Billy was twenty-five years old when this happened. Jenny was only twenty-four. They had just started their journey as a married couple before an eighteen-wheeler truck cut their lives short. The driver entered this country illegally. His jack-knifed across the road in total darkness. The huge truck sat there with neither hazard lights lit nor warning signs placed to alert oncoming traffic of the obstacle blocking both carriageways. The driver stayed at the scene but did not report the highway blockage. It took another driver encountering the truck ten to fifteen minutes before Billy and Jenny for someone to call 911.

I remember every detail about that night on November 24, 2025. We were driving back to Portland, Oregon from Preston, Idaho where Jenny is originally from. Their cat Bert was tucked safely in the Subaru Outback backseat. They had been married for only sixteen days at that point. It felt like a union pre-destined by fate itself. Billy and Jenny had been inseparable ever since their first date together. That blind date occurred at a church event a year earlier. They possessed this magical, lightning-in-a-bottle kind of love found in one out of a million couples. When they started dating Billy could not stop smiling because he was more alive around her than ever before. She made him feel the same way too. On their wedding day he could not stop saying my wife in every single sentence he spoke.

They tied the knot at the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Portland, Oregon on November 8. The newlyweds then embarked on a whirlwind tour for the following two weeks. They honeymooned at Disneyland first before journeying to Idaho for a second wedding reception with Jenny's friends and family. On that fateful call we discussed whether they should stay in a hotel for the night or continue driving instead. It was 8:30 pm when we spoke. Billy and Jenny insisted they felt well rested and fresh enough to keep going. We decided they would drive toward our home in Springfield about two hundred miles down the road where I eagerly awaited their arrival. That decision will haunt me for the rest of my life.

My husband had been tracking their location all along. At 9:30 pm he noticed they had stopped moving completely. We tried calling them but there was no answer at all. We checked Trip Check, a website for Oregon that reports on road incidents and conditions. Initially we found no answers there either. We kept refreshing the site looking for more information about what happened later. Finally an accident was reported on the route where Billy and Jenny's location had stopped earlier. My husband called the Highway Patrol non-emergency number searching desperately for any answers about our son and daughter-in-law in that dark moment.

The news arrived slowly, piece by piece, with every phone call confirming an accident but leaving us blind about who was hurt. Billy and Jenny tied the knot on November 8, 2025, in a union that felt destined from the start. They launched into a whirlwind honeymoon immediately after signing their vows. Their first stop was Disneyland before they traveled to Idaho for a second wedding reception with Jenny's friends and family. For what seemed like forever, I sat on the couch with my daughter Josie, praying nothing had happened to them, that they were safe and out of harm's way. I stayed in deep denial until two state troopers knocked on our door to deliver a horrific message that would change all of our lives forever.

Here is what I remember about what the officers told me. Billy and Jenny died at the scene. There was no way for them to avoid this accident. They couldn't see it coming. It happened instantly, which means they didn't suffer. There were no skid marks, one officer explained, meaning there wasn't even enough time for them to be afraid. These details sound comforting but feel hollow when you are the grieving parent.

What we learned about what caused the deadly crash still makes my blood go cold. An 18-wheel tractor trailer driven by Rajinder Kumar had jack-knifed across all the lanes of the highway, blocking traffic in both directions. It was pitch black at night, yet there were no warning lights, flares, cones or emergency signals – not even the truck's hazard lights were on. Police reports later revealed that Kumar was an illegal immigrant holding a non-domiciled Commercial Driver's License in California and work authorization. He did not follow proper protocol that night when he failed to notify authorities about the jack-knifing. He gave no warning to oncoming traffic that his trailer stretched across the entire road, despite having warning equipment available. He did not call 911. We later found out he did not speak English, a skill federally required to hold a CDL.

Kumar was arrested the night of the crash on two counts of criminally negligent homicide. A grand jury later raised those charges to two counts of manslaughter in the first degree and added three counts of reckless endangerment. He pled not guilty to all of them. I've never considered myself a highly political person, but the issue of immigration has been blasted into my life as destructively and instantly as that 80,000-pound tractor trailer driven by Kumar took the lives of my son and daughter-in-law.

I am a life-long Democrat, yet my son's unfair and entirely preventable death has me questioning everything I believe in. We are living with untenable chaos while allowing millions of undocumented people into the country under President Biden. Kumar entered illegally in 2022 near Lukeville, Arizona, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The Biden Administration immediately released him and gave him a work permit. California Governor Gavin Newsom made the unilateral decision to issue his CDL, DHS records show.

We are living with untenable chaos while allowing millions of undocumented people into the country under President Biden. Billy and Jenny died at the scene of a terrible accident caused by an 18-wheel tractor trailer driven by Rajinder Kumar - an illegal immigrant. If you allow millions of people en masse into the country, you need to have a plan. I'll be the first to say I don't have all the answers, but we have a major problem with immigration in this country and it's only getting more urgent by the day.

Aided by Oregon's sanctuary state policies and bail policies, Kumar posted bail on April 2 and was granted release. Twenty days later, on April 22, he was arrested by ICE and taken to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. Although Kumar returned to Deschutes County Jail this month, his deportation order to India still stands.

He faces upcoming hearings where bail could be granted again, leaving him exposed to deportation right before his criminal trial set for January 19, 2027. When Kumar came back to Oregon this month ahead of the October 23 hearing, I got a chance from ICE to talk briefly in the parking lot before he walked into Deschutes County jail. I kept my distance, standing about five or six feet away. I said hello and he looked at me. But when I told him I was Billy's mother, his eyes dropped and he never looked up again.

'I know you didn't get out of bed that morning planning to ruin three families,' I told him. 'I know you have a family in India and I pray for you and them. I hope we can all find peace eventually.' That is my true belief. For Billy, my forgiveness would matter greatly, yet it feels impossible right now. Too many questions remain unanswered.

Kumar deserves a fair trial to defend himself publicly, but I want answers on why he made those choices. Why didn't he turn on his warning light? Why didn't he call for help? I cannot stop wondering if Kumar stayed silent that night because of his immigration status. I fear the same thing will happen to any other undocumented person in an accident who is too scared to call 911 or simply cannot speak English. Lives could end because of that silence.

There is a deep worry Kumar might be deported before trial, making it nearly impossible to bring him back to Deschutes County for his case. If deportation happens, he needs federal permission just to return, plus the money to get there. Billy and Jenny had been married only 16 days when they died. Billy will never hold a baby or build a family of his own.

The Deschutes County District Attorneys victims advocate office has reached out, but laws block them from talking to ICE. Once officers took him away, everything became very complicated. We have lost too much young life to people who should not legally be here at all. An Oregon judge issued a $1 million arrest warrant for Kumar because he violated release terms by leaving the state.

I truly believe if Kumar was here legally, he likely would have followed protocol and my son and daughter-in-law might still live. There is a huge lack of support for immigrants once they arrive in this country. Should we really be surprised at the chaos that follows? If we make laws, we must obey them. I contacted senators about stopping tragedies like this through stricter immigration rules. The answer was always 'nobody in DC will listen because we are Democrats.'

I am appalled by the 'why even try' attitude from Democrats and their failure to follow through on an issue their party worsened. With midterms and the anniversary of Billy and Jenny's deaths approaching, I decided earlier this year to testify before Congress. I could not stand quietly while immigration slipped off the radar. Billy and Jenny deserved justice and I needed lawmakers to see this as a problem needing immediate attention.

I told the panel I felt ashamed at how my party handled immigration and I still stand by that feeling. I feel like they created a crisis they now refuse to address or take responsibility for. Worse, they seem apathetic about it all. While I gave testimony, Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) fell asleep.

I wanted to ask him if my grief bored him. The Daily Mail reached out to Nadler's representatives for comment after this statement emerged. With midterm elections approaching and the anniversary of Billy and Jenny's deaths fast getting near, I chose to testify before Congress earlier this year. Nadler's behavior that day shows the passivity I feel from so many elected officials. Democrats and even some Republicans share this same disconnect while victims like me demand an end to dangers enabled by lax immigration attitudes here. I have called and written letters to congressmen constantly. It remains a hard uphill battle just to get anyone to pay attention or send back a reply. This issue needs to be much bigger than party politics right now. My husband is a Republican while I am a Democrat, yet we can work things out without venom and vitriol or fighting against each other. So why can't the people who love this country enough to serve it put their parties aside? They should talk about what really matters instead of arguing over ideology. I pray they do not have to lose a child like I did before coming to this realization. Every single day, I carry the weight of knowing Billy and Jenny will never get the family they wanted. They will never travel the world like they dreamed or grow old with one another. Instead of testifying in front of Congress and lobbying for immigration reform, I should be getting to know my daughter-in-law. Looking ahead means spoiling my future grandchildren rather than grieving forever. I shouldn't have had to plan their joint funeral while their wedding gifts were still arriving. This whole nightmare shouldn't have happened at all because Kumar shouldn't have been in the country in the first place. As told to Cady Lang, these words carry a heavy truth that demands our immediate focus today.