Kymberlie Guthrie doesn't remember the April crash that killed her husband and 3-month-old daughter. Kymberlie and another daughter, now 17 months old, survived after their car plunged off a ramp to Interstate 77. Still recovering physically and mentally, she strives to do "the best I can."

Kymberlie Guthrie scanned the fenced playground when her 17-month-old briefly wandered from view.

“Where did she go? ... Em-e-lyn!”



She found the girl, drinking from her Ariel sippy cup, next to a woman on a wooden park bench. The bright-eyed Emelyn motioned to get down and started toward the slide steps.



“She thinks she’s invincible,” Guthrie said.



Throughout the afternoon, people at Tuscora Park asked the girl’s name and age. One wanted to know about siblings — the first to ask such a question since the Guthries’ SUV fell from a Canton overpass April 30, killing Kymberlie Guthrie’s 23-year-old husband, Paul, and their 3-month-old daughter, Gabriella.



It caught Guthrie off guard. She recovered as Emelyn tottered up steps in daisy-topped sandals.



“She’s my oldest,” the 26-year-old said.



In her only interview since the crash, Guthrie agreed to talk to The Repository about Emelyn’s and her recovery.



BEFORE THE CRASH



Kymberlie and Paul knew each other about a year before they married, had Emelyn and moved to Dennison, a village in Tuscarawas County about 11 miles southeast of New Philadelphia.



She grew up in Dover. He was from Louisville and was a 2009 Marlington High School graduate. They would have celebrated two years of marriage in August.



“I was worried that it happened too soon,” Guthrie said. “But I just looked at him, and honestly, I couldn’t imagine life without him.”



Paul’s hobby was scouring YouTube for new hobbies: gardening, canning vegetables, making beer and wine, shaving with a straight razor and building an apple cider press. He knew his wife liked the drink and wanted to make her the real thing.



“His latest project was he wanted to make moccasins for the girls,” Guthrie said. Her husband thought they were better for their feet.



Paul’s motorcycle was his other love, and he was employed at a cleaning company through Mancan, a staffing agency.



“He was the kind of person, if he could dream it, he wanted to do it,” Guthrie said. “It didn’t matter what it was, if he could dream it, he wanted to do it.”



Gabriella was born Jan. 22. The infant quickly learned how to master her parents’ emotions, crying for attention until one of them held her. She’d flash a “gummy smile” and look at Kymberlie Guthrie as if she were “the best person in the entire world.” Gabriella, unlike her independent sister, loved to cuddle.



“She was my snuggle bug,” Guthrie said.



LAST APRIL DAY



The morning of April 30, the Guthries drove from their Dennison apartment to the Tuscarawas Humane Society.



They picked up Aspen, an American bulldog-pit bull mix, whose breed made it difficult to find an adoptive family. Kymberlie Guthrie wanted to do more than donate to the shelter by fostering a dog for a day. The family visited her parents’ house in New Philadelphia before heading to the Homeworth area southeast of Alliance, where Paul’s parents live.



“We spent the day there because they live on 5 acres, so the dog got to be outside,” Guthrie said.



The families had dinner, talked and played with Aspen.



“It was a really good day,” she added.



They left early to beat an approaching storm back to New Philadelphia, where the Guthries planned to bunk overnight because the dog couldn’t stay with their cats. Kymberlie Guthrie texted her mother before the hour drive home, “She goes, ‘OK. See you soon.’ ”



Near U.S. Route 30, the Guthries stopped at a car wash they visited on the drive up. Kymberlie Guthrie wanted to check for a lost dog bone. They continued west on Route 30, turning at about 10 p.m. onto the ramp for Interstate 77 southbound.



Paul was driving the 2000 Chevrolet Tracker with Kymberlie in the passenger seat. Emelyn was behind her next to Gabriella, their car seats so close they touched.



That’s where Guthrie’s memory ends.



“I remember slamming against the walls and being in the air,” she said. “After that: hospital.”



A LONG NIGHT



The SUV’s front passenger side struck the onramp’s western concrete wall.



The vehicle went airborne and landed 30 feet away on the barrier. Then it slid on the driver’s side door before it rolled onto its top and slid some more.



Canton resident Bruno Gregg, who was driving on another ramp below, saw sparks and then the bottom of the Tracker as it went over the less than 3-foot-tall wall.



Officials say the small SUV plummeted 65 feet, slamming into trees and a retaining wall before landing upright in the frigid Nimishillen Creek.



Gregg pulled off the ramp and made his way toward the screams coming from the creekbed. He used another passer-by’s knife to cut Emelyn from her seat, and onlookers helped her up the embankment to an ambulance as he unsuccessfully tried to free Paul and Kymberlie. They pleaded for their babies, but Gregg could not find Gabriella.



Meanwhile, emergency vehicles sped in all directions around the interchange trying to locate the wreckage. Firefighters scoured the creek and flashing lights filled the closed highway ramp.



Rescuers finally saw the top of the SUV as it sat in the fast-moving water and freed the submerged Gabriella.



Rain had brought the normally 11⁄2-foot-deep creek to 6 feet in some areas.



Three Canton police officers stayed with Paul and Kymberlie, keeping their heads above water while they waited for a Canton Fire Department water rescue team. They were lifted from the ravine by basket after a nearly hour-long ordeal.



The three officers and a firefighter were treated for hypothermia after the rescue.



Canton police findings released in July show there may have been multiple factors contributing to the crash. The SUV traveled the wet road with nearly bald rear tires and a badly repaired front axle. Cracks in the front suspension and steering subframe had been welded, preventing proper alignment and causing the Tracker to ride on its outer tire tread.



The wear was greatest on the front tires, which recently had been rotated to the rear. Police say they did not meet the legal tread depth of 3⁄32 of an inch and increased the SUV’s chance of hydroplaning.



“It could have been hydroplaning,” said Richard Kinlow, a Canton police officer involved in the investigation. “I would say most likely not. It’s just that front axle having an issue.”



The highway ramp is tilted so rainwater can run off, and all drains were open, he said. Paul drove a minimum of 40 mph, the suggested speed, before police say he lost control on the left-curving ramp.



A toxicology report showed he had nothing in his system besides caffeine, according to the Stark County Coroner’s Office.



FIRST OF MAY



Kymberlie Guthrie was in a bed at Akron General Medical Center with five fractured ribs, four fractured vertebrae, a broken pelvis and a severe concussion. Someone, possibly a doctor, asked her what happened.



“I’m laying there, I had no idea where I even was, let alone what happened,” she said. “I don’t remember anything.”



In a matter of hours — which she said felt like two days — Kymberlie Guthrie learned Paul didn’t survive. He was pronounced dead hours after the crash at Mercy Medical Center.



Her girls were taken to Akron Children’s Hospital. Gabriella was on life support, and doctors told Guthrie the 3-month-old showed no signs of recovery. Guthrie decided to remove her from the machines that were keeping her alive.



Gabriella’s grandmother was with her when she died the morning of May 1, and the infant’s body was taken to Akron General so Kymberlie Guthrie could say goodbye.



“They brought her to me all wrapped in blankets,” she said. “They picked an outfit out for her. I cried, obviously. Begged her to wake up.”



Her pastor performed a baby dedication since Guthrie never had had a chance to plan the ceremony during Gabriella’s life. Frustratingly, she couldn’t use her arms to hold Gabriella, so her cousin and mother had to help hold her. They lifted the infant so Guthrie could give her a kiss.



She had her daughter for almost an hour. It felt like five minutes.



In the days that followed, donations for the Guthries accumulated and a candlelight vigil was held at the crash site. Groups searched the area hoping to find Aspen alive, but the dog’s body later was discovered in the creek.



WEEKS SINCE



What doesn’t she remember? What would have happened if there had been no witnesses?



Those thoughts still frighten Kymberlie Guthrie, but she’s grateful passers-by did stop, and, sometimes, that she can’t remember.



“There’s days I wish, with all my heart, that I could remember even something,” she said, such as her last moments with her husband. “And then there’s days I’m so glad that I don’t remember.”



It’s tough enough with what others have told her.



Kymberlie Guthrie returned home from the hospital after about two weeks, and only then did Emelyn let her mother hold her. Then 15 months old, Emelyn was released from the hospital three days after the crash with only some bruising and a precautionary neck brace.



Physically, both are nearly healed. Kymberlie Guthrie is undergoing therapy to correct her twisted lower back and is on blood thinners for clots that formed in her lungs and legs. Doctors placed a filter in one of her main arteries until a cut on her liver could heal and allow her to take medication.



She was able to walk for her husband and daughter’s funeral, which was paid for by donations, but was bedridden the following day.



“I spent the better part of May in the hospital,” Guthrie said.



The funeral took place about two weeks after the crash at Paul’s old church, the Chapel in Marlboro. Kymberlie Guthrie’s aunt donated a cemetery plot and one of her husband’s relatives donated a casket for Paul and Gabriella.



“They’re buried together,” she said. “He’s holding her.”



MONTHS LATER



The mother and daughter remain in their Dennison apartment, but Kymberlie Guthrie said she would like to move.



Emelyn won’t let her out of sight at home and is terrified when people raise their voice or knock on the door. The girl no longer plays in the big pool she once loved.



“I’m not really sure what’s going on in her little head,” Guthrie said. “Obviously, she can’t tell me. I wish she could, so I could make it better.”



She gave a picture of Paul and Gabriella to Emelyn, who kisses and carries it, saying, “Hi, Daddy.” Some nights she calls out for her father. At a loss for words to explain his absence, Guthrie tells Emelyn her dad is an angel in heaven and that he loves her and wishes he were here, too.



“The nights that she cries for him are the hardest nights.”



The day’s end is difficult for Guthrie as well, providing an unwanted break from the day’s doctor, therapy or work commitments that keep her mind busy. There are days she thinks Paul is at work and she needs to start supper. At times, she looks for Gabriella when babies cry.



“Words can’t describe how much I miss both of them.”



Guthrie hasn’t looked at any news reports or photos of the crash. Living it was enough, even if she can’t remember. She also hasn’t talked to Gregg, though her parents did. Guthrie said she intends to thank him personally when “the time is right.”



Without passers-by and rescuers, she said, her family “would have been down there for who knows how long.”



The notoriety that followed the crash overwhelmed and amazed her. People — people she didn’t know, from as far away as Colorado — left messages via phone and Facebook, sent her cards and signed the funeral guest book.



“I could spend the rest of my life saying thank you to people,” Guthrie said. “And I probably wouldn’t even come close to expressing how grateful I am without even covering all the people that helped.”



MOVING ON



Guthrie began work July 7 as a group home staff member. The same week, she returned to the YMCA, where her membership had been on hold since the crash. The staff was surprised to see her walking.



“Physically, I bounce back fast,” she said.



Hesitant to make long-term plans since the crash dashed those she had with her husband, Guthrie said, “right now, it’s kind of day-by-day.” She plans to return to school in August and finish her psychology degree at Kent State University at Tuscarawas. She hopes to one day buy a house “and just continue to do the best I can with the life I’ve been given.”



Mostly, she is staying strong for Emelyn.



Guthrie said, despite a few new fears, her daughter is like any other toddler. She plays, gets sick and mouths back. “No” and “stop” are some of Emelyn’s favorite words.



But Guthrie takes none of it for granted.



“I’m just so grateful that she’s here to throw tantrums.”



Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323 or kelly.byer@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @kbyerREP