A twist of fate

The phone call: Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Colleen Cerak: It was one of those things where it's 2:00 in the morning and, you know, you just grab the phone. And nothing ever really is good when somebody's calling you at 2:00 in the morning.

It was five weeks since Colleen Cerak had taken one fateful call, when she was told her daughter Whitney had been killed in a high-speed crash.

Now the same people who called then were calling back.

Colleen Cerak: And introduced themselves as the Grant County Coroner and Grant County Chaplain. They were both on the phone. And the first thing they said, “Was I alone?”

Her husband, Newell, was in New Jersey, chaperoning a trip with a church youth group. He'd been traveling the night Whitney died. This was his first trip since then.

Colleen Cerak: I said, "Well, my daughter's home." And he was like, "Get her. Could you get her on the phone?" So I got out of bed. And I’m still not really thinking that clearly. And give Carly the phone and wake her up. And I went downstairs to get on the other extension. And that's when they said, "We have reason to believe that your daughter, Whitney, is alive."

A statement so unexpected, so overwhelming... She couldn't even comprehend it at first.

Colleen Cerak: And, you know, then you just go -- really your whole body goes, "No, I know that's not true. You know we buried our daughter." And they said, "We know for sure that the girl in the hospital in Grand Rapids is not Laura Van Ryn. And we think that it's Whitney. Could you get some dental records and come down here?"

Matt Lauer: And Colleen, at this point how high up in your body did you allow that swell of hope to rise?

Colleen Cerak: It wasn't. There wasn't any hope at that point. It was more of like a duty. You know? Just close this door. I know it's not Whitney. Just something that we needed to do. But I didn't even know if we needed to do it at that point. You know I just said, "Can I call you back?"

Carly Cerak: I ran downstairs and I told my mom, "Whoever this is, I don't know why they're doing this, but this isn't real." Like there's no -- I knew for sure there was no way that Whitney was alive, especially because Laura’s friends are some of my really close friends. And they know Whitney through me. And even one of my closest friends went and visited and she's really close with Whitney. They never said anything about it. So I knew for sure there was no way it was Whitney.

Nevertheless, at 2 a.m., Colleen called the family dentist, who agreed to pull Whitney’s records. Then she called her husband Newell.

Newell Cerak: And I know because of the edge in her voice that there's something up. And I go, my thought immediately, I said, "Not Carly." I just said, "Not Carly," thinking that maybe Carly had been in some accident. And when she said to me, you know, that there's a possibility that Whitney could be alive, it was like, "No." And I go, "No." I go, "She's gone. We buried her." And then I hear Carly and she got on the phone and she goes, "Dad, don't you believe it for a second." And I go, "Carly, I don't. I don't. I really believe we were -- that's Whitney that we buried."

He spent a sleepless night by the phone while Whitney’s mother and sister picked up her dental records and made the three-hour trip to the rehab center.

Matt Lauer: You drive. Still not believing it.

Colleen Cerak: No.

Matt Lauer: Talking through all the reasons why it couldn't be Whitney.

Colleen Cerak: It kind of worked its way down. You know, like when we got in the car it was just like -- it was a duty. We just needed to do this. We were just like, "this is stupid but let's just get it done."

Carly Cerak: I still was certain that it wasn't Whitney. And I didn't want to go on the trip. I only went because my mom really wanted me to go.

Colleen Cerak: And then about halfway we started thinking, "you know, but what if?" And then we were just kind of making up kind of funny things like, "Well, if it is it's going to be this movie." And we started picking out like the cast of characters. You know, who would--

Matt Lauer: Who would play who?

Colleen Cerak: Who would play who. And that kept us going for a little bit. And then the closer we got then the more serious we became. And just like, "but if they couldn't recognize their daughter for five weeks, what are we going to see?" And then that kind of anxiousness was there. You know? What was she going to look like? If they couldn't recognize her would we recognize her? You know, if it was Whitney was she ever going to be our Whitney again? So it was pretty scary.

Carly Cerak: By the time we'd got to the hospital I was so upset that we even had to go look at whoever this girl is. In my mind the closest I could think was someone else got into an accident the same time that this accident happened. And in the hospital those two girls got switched. And it was some random girl. I just figured whoever it was must still be pretty disfigured. So I was nervous to see whatever this person looked like.

They reached the rehab center at daybreak. The staff was waiting at the door.

Colleen Cerak: And, you know, welcomed us. But it was very reserved. And you know, tried to explain little things or ask us if we had any questions, but really all we wanted to do was see if this was really Whitney. So they walked us back to her room. And I was first following behind them. And the lights had to be low and stuff, but I just remember that they-- you know-- they just cracked open the door just a little bit.

Carly Cerak: And I remember just feeling so confused and just shaking so much. And seeing Van Ryn on the plate in front of the door. And then opening the door and seeing this girl facing the window laying down in this bed.

Could the young woman in the bed possibly be Whitney?

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