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Family talks about the woman killed when truck plowed into Starbucks on Highland Drive

Posted at 10:22 PM, Jun 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-09 00:22:21-04

MILLCREEK, Utah -- The family of a woman killed after  a pickup truck sailed into a Starbucks in Millcreek Friday morning, are left coping with the loss of their beloved sister, aunt, daughter and mother to a 3-year old girl.

Elizabeth Cooper said she received the call Friday afternoon that her aunt, 48-year-old Joslyn Nicole Spilsbury, died as she sat outside the Starbucks when the truck hit the building.

Unified Police said the driver, a 34-year old man from Oakley, Utah, may have suffered a medical issue before the crash.

The crash left two others on the Starbucks patio with critical injuries, and police said two children in the truck suffered minor injuries.

For the those who knew and loved Spilsbury, the shock is still settling in from that horrific event.

“My initial reaction was, we lost a really important person in our family, someone that we're really close to,” Cooper said.

Cooper said both she and her sister were extremely close with Spilsbury, and often spent time with their aunt.

Spilsbury was a social worker who was passionate about the people she helped, said her sister and Cooper’s mother Erin Spilsbury Cooper.

“She was just a bright ray of sunshine in life,” Spilsbury Cooper said.

She said Spilsbury’s 3-year old daughter was the light of her life. “Sweet little girl,” Spilsbury Cooper said, through tears. “My heart’s breaking for her.”

The mother and daughter described Spilsbury as fun, silly, bubbly and a beacon of light for others.

They said she had just celebrated her birthday in May.

“She just really understood people, and that’s what made her an amazing social worker and amazing aunt,” Cooper said. “We are really devastated.”