116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
High school friends, mother and son die in Cedar Rapids crash
Police have not said what they believe caused the fatal wreck
Dec. 5, 2023 1:05 pm, Updated: Dec. 6, 2023 7:41 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Two teens, friends since high school in the Quad Cities, died in a fiery car crash last week that also claimed a mother and her 13-year-old son.
Cedar Rapids police have not said what they believe led up to the four fatalities, and a public safety spokesman did not say whether there were any other passengers.
The two-vehicle crash occurred at 9:56 p.m. Friday near the intersection of C Street SW and Edison Road. First responders said the occupants were trapped, and one of the vehicles was on fire, when they arrived.
On Tuesday, police released the names of the three adults killed in the crash and verified that a 13-year-old also died, without providing his name. However, the names of the mother and son were known earlier after a social media fundraiser was posted to raise money for the family.
The adult victims were identified by police as Casey Krager, 18, of Davenport, Carter Cooper, 18, of Bettendorf, and Ruta Tekeste, 52, of Cedar Rapids.
The two 18-year-olds were high school friends who were attending college in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, according to their families.
Krager was a freshman studying business at the University of Iowa, but he hadn’t fully decided what he wanted to specialize in. He played baseball through high school, but had decided not to pursue athletics in college, according to his father, Jeffrey Krager.
“He was very driven by the power of success and where it can lead you,” he said. “He started planning his future younger than most people do, and he knew he was going to be successful no matter what it was.”
His son was close with his family and had a lot of close friends, Jeffrey Krager said. The teen had been friends with Cooper during high school, but the father said he didn’t know him or his family very well before the crash.
“I got a phone call late Friday evening, Dec. 1, from a local police officer who asked if I was at home. I was not. He informed me that he was at my house, at my front door. I am a bar owner locally and he said, ‘Are you down at the bar?’ and I said, ‘I am.’ He said, ‘OK, we’ll be down there in a minute,’” Jeffrey Krager recalled.
“I knew why they were coming down. I didn’t want to know, but I knew. They don’t just come down to see you just to tell you something kind of bad happened. They came down and they told me, and I think my world came crashing to an end right then and there.”
Cooper was studying to become a firefighter at Kirkwood Community College, according to his brother, Kainan Cooper.
A GoFundMe page started to raise funeral funds for the mother and son killed had raised $29,253 as of Tuesday afternoon. Family members of Tekeste and her son declined to speak with The Gazette. According to the GoFundMe page, her son — Bruk Mehari — was born in Egypt and moved to the United States with his mother in 2014.
According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, the last time a crash in Iowa killed four people at once was Jan. 27, in Grundy County. There have been eight crashes in Iowa this year that killed at least three people.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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