Murray Wood: Why this Roughrider season has not been like a roller coaster
Murray Wood says the Saskatchewan Roughriders' fans like him remain defiantly optimistic no matter what, even if they so...
A memorial made up of three crosses with some stuffed animals lying underneath remains in the ditch on the edge of the grid road near Foam Lake.
People in the town are also leaving stuffed animals on their doorsteps in memory of 40-year-old Amber Olson and her daughters, Isla and Everly, five and eight.
The three were killed Friday in a three-vehicle crash on a grid road. Amber’s partner Shaun Didychuk, who was also in the SUV, survived with serious injuries.
Read more:
- GoFundMe raises funds for Foam Lake dad after crash
- Melville pedestrian death pushes road fatalities to 87: Sask. RCMP
- Yorkton resident, 18, facing terrorism charges: RCMP
A roadside memorial with stuffed animals and three crosses at the site of the Oct. 2, 2026 crash that killed a 40-year-old mother and her two children on Oct. 2, 2026. (Gillian Massie/980CJME)
“It’s been pretty tough for the neighbourhood and the children and family and friends and just our whole community; we are feeling it. It’s tough.
“I take it day by day, keeping Shaun in our thoughts and our prayers, and his family, and Amber and the girl’s family. It’s just devastating. It’s a tragedy,” said Stacie Warren, a community member who knew the family.
Warren is remembering how her children played with the two little girls.
“There are so many children playing and laughing, and they would come over and draw on the sidewalk and ride their bikes; they would always be outside. You could walk past, and they’d always be outside and say hello,” Warren recalled.
The three deaths has not been easy on the town; they are mourning not just a mother and two daughters, but a husband and father left to grieve. Didychuk remains in hospital.
“Our town is pretty amazing. Our community is … everybody knows everybody, and you go downtown, and people are hugging. Even if you don’t know them personally, everyone’s just hugging everybody, making sure everybody’s okay,” Warren said.
“I think it’s just that this town is going to mourn for quite some time, and it’s going to be tough moving forward. But we’re a pretty strong community, and we’re all going to get through this somehow. It’s just going take some time,” she said.
Stuffed animals sit outside a home in Foam Lake in remembrance of 40-year-old Amber, eight-year-old Everly and five-year-old Isla, who died in a crash on Oct. 2, 2026. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)
“I knew the kids more. They were they were in dance, and the little one just started soccer in the summer, and I was her coach. She just gave it her all. So did Evelyn. They’d always come by and say, “Hey, Stacie, how’s it going? Can we play with your little girls?
“They always had smiles on their faces. Their little giggles, and you could hear them playing down the street from here. We are going to miss them. I think the kids in school are. It’s going to take them time to adjust, and they’re so young that it’s really hard to explain to some of the children.”
The site of the crash near Foam Lake that killed 40-year-old Amber, eight-year-old Everly and five-year-old Isla on Oct. 2, 2026. (Gillian Massie/980CJME)
Online fundraising continues
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Didychuk with medical expenses, bills and the funeral and memorial costs for his family.
On Tuesday afternoon, it had raised more than $29,000 of its $40,000 goal.
Officers were called to the scene of the crash around 12:35 p.m. on Oct. 2, and the RCMP said investigators determined a truck was attempting to pass a semi when it crashed into the family’s SUV.
Kelly Knopf, a 40-year-old man from South Carolina, has been charged with three counts of dangerous driving causing death and three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm in connection with the crash.
As of October 5, Saskatchewan RCMP said there had been 72 fatal collisions with 87 fatalities on roadways policed by Saskatchewan RCMP in 2026.
— with files from 980CJME’s Gillian Massie
Read more:
