‘I’m just going to miss them’: Portland mom grieves after her children were killed in crash on Hwy 18

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Sunday afternoon, Sadylen Nguyen was expecting her kids to be back from their dad’s house, but they were later than she expected. It wasn’t long before she got a terrible gut feeling that was confirmed by Oregon State troopers.

“They told me the news and I just had, I was pacing back in forth going crazy in this room, I couldn’t believe it,” Nguyen said through tears.

Just before noon on Sunday, Oregon State Police said a sedan with four passengers crashed into a motorhome head on and both cars went up in flames on Highway 18 near McMinnville.

Those in the motorhome are okay, but all four in the sedan died, including 19-year-old Phillip Nguyen and 13-year-old Etana Nguyen.

Both, bright lights gone too soon.

Phillip was a freshman at Portland State University with big plans for the future, hoping to follow in his mom’s footsteps.

“We were going to start traveling and he was going to, my son, Phillip, was going to start CNA school because he wanted to be a nurse like me,” Nguyen said.

Etana was an outgoing girl just months away from graduating middle school.

“She was very popular in George (middle school), everybody knows her, everybody loves her,” Nguyen said. “She plays the orchestra bravo band there and she was involved in a lot of after-school activities.”

“Etana was just like a sunflower coming out of her shell and she was a very happy girl and had a lot of promise as well,” their uncle, Jacob Andrews, said.

There’s not one thing Nguyen won’t miss about both of her angels.

“I’m just going to miss them,” she said.

A GoFundMe was set up to help the Nguyen family pay for funeral expenses, you can donate here.

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