Student’s death leaves void

WOODWAY – Jemae Kolodziejczyk-Uruo’s favorite bench at Edmonds-Woodway High School was empty Monday.

For the first time this year, the outgoing sophomore wasn’t there to greet friends with a hello that carried all the way down the hall, or break into a few spontaneous dance steps.

Instead, pictures, flowers and heart-shaped messages reading “We’ll miss you always” and “We love you Jemae” covered her bench and the walls next to it.

The 16-year-old was killed when the car she was riding in slammed into a utility pole in the 24100 block of 116th Avenue W. in Woodway about 12:10 a.m. Sunday. The teenage driver and two other boys in the car were seriously injured.

“I still can’t believe she’s gone,” said Andrew Yesiki, 17, who met Kolodziejczyk-Uruo in the third grade. “She was a very special person, always laughing and smiling. She glowed.”

That warmth won her many friends, he said, kindness that suited her dream of becoming a pediatrician.

“She was willing to listen to your problems more than anyone else was,” said Ebony Murphy, 16, who met Kolodziejczyk-Uruo in seventh grade. “She really cared.”

Kolodziejczyk-Uruo never missed one of her basketball games, or any of her friend’s competitions, Murphy said.

“She was the No. 1 fan for any sport that anybody played. She’d cheer louder than your mom,” Murphy said. “That’s the kind of friend she was.”

On Wednesday, students at Edmonds-Woodway High School will wear white to remember Kolodziejczyk-Uruo, and a memorial service expected to draw hundreds is scheduled for Friday.

The crash that killed her happened after she and three boys left a home in Woodway where they’d been hanging out with friends, police said.

The teenage driver apparently was going too fast to make the curve in the road, Woodway Assistant Police Chief Mark Connor said.

The Volkswagen Jetta hit the pole so hard, both doors on the left side were torn off, Edmonds Fire Lt. Pat Helper said. Firefighters found Kolodziejczyk-Uruo sitting up against the crumpled car.

The driver, 16, of Lynnwood, who’d received his license three months ago, should not have been driving with teenage passengers, Connor said. Under the state’s intermediate licensing law, teens must wait six months before driving with anyone younger than age 20, except for family.

“With inexperienced drivers, it’s imperative that they just take a minute to think about what the worst-case scenario is,” Connor said.

Driving recklessly, he said, “could mean killing one of your friends.”

Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.

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