by A cop arrives on the scene of a fatal car crash. Unfortunately, one of the passengers, a 19 year old girl died on the scene. As the officer looks surveys the crash, he finds something that was absolutely devastating and forced him to make a trip that was over 700 miles.
Sgt. Jonathon Whaley was the first cop to arrive to this deadly car accident. Sadly, two victims inside the vehicle. One, named McKenzie Amanda Grace Catron, 19, and a passenger named Jessica.
McKenzie and Jessica were enjoying spring break when their car ran off the road and hit a utility pole. McKenzie was pronounced dead at the scene and her passenger suffered a serious brain injury along with a broken back and pelvis, but she survived. However, what Sgt. Whaley discovered near the accident site was totally heart shattering – McKenzie’s dog, Kai.
When the car hit the utility pole, witnesses spotted the dog fleeing from the scene. When Whaley heard about the girl’s beloved dog, he immediately took matters into his own hands. “We felt we needed to find the dog,” Sgt. Whaley explained, according to Auto Blog. “We were going to do whatever we needed to do to reunite this dog with this family.”
Along with several other police officers, firemen, and hundreds of local volunteers, Sgt. Whaley searched the area for Kai. The search and rescue efforts were coordinated on a Facebook page called Help Find Kai. Thankfully, Benjamin Irwin, a lawyer from the local law firm Cherry & Irwin Trial Lawyers, put up $1,000 for a reward and was lucky enough to be the person to find the dog. It was then that the name of the Facebook page was changed to We Found Kai.
“I just know if I were them I would want the last tangible thing of someone I loved,” Irwin explains, according to Fox 5. In addition, he announced that he was going to donate the reward money to the shelter where Kai was originally adopted.
Once Kai was caught, Sgt. Whaley and his family drove 770 miles to Bentonville, Arkansas to return her to McKenzie’s family. When they arrived with the young girl’s dog, the family was amazed at the generosity shown by so many people, including Sgt. Whaley and his family. “For us, it was just a part of her,” McKenzie’s mother, Kendra Mulherin said. “And we found it. And now we can kind of start healing.”
For anyone who has lost a loved one, we all understand the need to feel connected to person who has passed. Kai was important to McKenzie, and because of that, this dog will be cherished by the young girl’s family for years to come.
Thankfully, there are nice people like Sgt. Whaley who will go out of their way to help someone during a difficult time. Police officers need to be recognized as the selfless heroes they truly are – instead of the negative image the media tends to give them.
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