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Loved ones remember teen killed in crash as family traveled to Utah to celebrate Christmas

Posted at 9:19 PM, Dec 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-24 23:19:09-05

SALT LAKE CITY – Esther Ure tears up when remembering her 19-year-old nephew Kenneth James Patterson.

“He was and is and always will be love,” Ure said of Kenneth.  “He was a happy child, very intelligent.”

Patterson died on Saturday when a car carrying his mother, father and two brothers crashed on Interstate 215 in Taylorsville.

The family was traveling from Westfir, Oregon to Cottonwood Heights –a nearly 800 mile drive—to spend Christmas with relatives in Utah.  They were just minutes away from their destination when the crash occurred.

Ure says the Patterson family’s strong LDS faith is helping them cope with this tragedy.

“As my sister stated so eloquently today, he is on his mission now and his Heavenly Father has called him home,” Ure said.  “I think it is the only way that we can fully process it.”

The family will still gather for Christmas and remember a life taken all too soon.  This year’s gathering won’t be the same without Kenneth.

“Christmastime has always been very special to the family,” Ure said.  “It’s the one time of the year that we could all be together and just share everything that happened in the past year, and all the things that we missed in each other’s lives living so far apart.”

The other people in the car survived and are expected to recover from their injuries, but they now face a mountain of medical bills.

The family has set up a Go Fund Me page for anyone who wants to help with medical bills and the expenses for Kenneth’s funeral.