Little girl recovers in grandfather’s care

Someday, Duane Saunders will have to tell his granddaughter about her family, and he’ll have to do it carefully because it’s a very sad story.

Seven-month-old Lyssa Saunders lost her mother, father and sister in what police say was a drunken-driving crash last summer. The Spokesman-Review first reported the story on July 30, the day after the deaths.

The family was driving back to their Bonners Ferry home late at night. Lyssa’s father, Bart Bartron, 24, was on a two-week break from his U.S. Army base in Anchorage, Alaska, and was trying to fit in as many visits to family and friends as he could. The visit was the first time he’d seen Lyssa, who was 2 months old at the time.

The family was northbound on U.S. Highway 95, just south of Bonners Ferry, when a pickup coming from the opposite direction went into their lane, hitting them head-on.

Bartron died at the scene. Tabitha Saunders, 21, and Kjestine Saunders, 2, died shortly afterward at Boundary Community Hospital.

Lyssa spent a month at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, recovering from several skull fractures, internal bleeding and a broken arm.

Now Lyssa is living with her grandfather Duane Saunders, 43, and his girlfriend, Shirley Fitzpatrick, 36.

Fitzpatrick calls Lyssa’s survival a miracle.

“I personally think she was destined for something great,” Fitzpatrick said, as she played with Lyssa in their Elmira, Idaho, home. Lyssa laughed when Fitzpatrick threw a blue-and-white checkered elephant into the air, a giggle that’s like her sister Kjestine’s.

Though her injuries have mostly healed, Lyssa’s body still bears reminders of the night her world changed. The left side of her head is dented, the result of lying on that side while in the hospital.

She eats through a tube inserted into her stomach because the damage to her skull affected a part of her brain that controls sucking and swallowing.

A speech therapist is helping Lyssa learn how to push food back with her tongue and swallow. An occupational therapist is helping Lyssa with her motor skills. Most babies her age are sitting and able to support their weight on their legs; Lyssa can do neither.

When she’s older, perhaps Lyssa will take inspiration from her mother, who overcame her own challenges.

Tabitha Saunders was so proud when she earned her GED, overcoming the dyslexia that made learning a challenge.

Her memorial card bears a picture of her in her red graduation gown, holding Kjestine.

Fitzpatrick laments the fact that Tabitha is missing Lyssa’s childhood. Though Kjestine and Lyssa shared a resemblance to their mother, that’s where the similarity between the sisters ended. Kjestine could be a stubborn child, while Lyssa is more easygoing, Fitzpatrick said. “Lyssa, she would have been the easy one.”

Strong-willed or not, Kjestine cared for her sister and had begun acting the role of an older sibling. She helped bathe and change Lyssa. If Lyssa started fussing, Kjestine would shuttle between adults, not allowing them to ignore the cries, remembered Duane Saunders.

“Mom, baby. Mom, baby. Mom, baby,” Kjestine would say, Saunders recalled. “She was starting to become a good sister to the baby.”

The man accused of the killings is Luke Peterson of Naples, Idaho. Peterson, 27, has been charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, and one count of aggravated driving while intoxicated, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

A trial date has not been set, but it will take place sometime before the end of March.

Duane Saunders still gets angry thinking about how, according to police reports, Peterson left a bar and drove away, even though he was allegedly drunk.

“It’s so ironic Tabitha would be killed in a drunk-driving accident because she was so against drunk driving,” Saunders said, remembering a time when his daughter confiscated the car keys of people at a party.

Though Lyssa’s relatives will be able to tell her about the family members she’ll never know – her mother, father and sister – they don’t know if they will be able to tell her why they’re not around.

Said Saunders: “We’re still struggling how to explain that.”