Sheriff's office seeks public's help in fatal crash
May 16—TRAVERSE CITY — The Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Office is seeking tips from the community to see if witnesses saw something before a collision took the life of a young Traverse City man.
Officials asked for the public's help in finding more information about the May 3 crash that killed Sam DeKuiper. They posted the request on a Grand Traverse Sheriff's Office social media page Thursday.
DeKuiper was killed when a red Ford pickup truck driven by a 26-year-old Imlay City man hit him head-on in his Ford Taurus at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon on County Road 633.
"If you were driving on County Road 633 between West County Line Road and Miller Road just prior to 4:30 PM and were passed by, followed by, or observed a red pick-up truck (Red F-150) please email bhunter@gtsheriff.org and provide any information you have," the post said.
It also makes clear that deputies are not looking for the pickup truck itself, only information about it before the crash.
The collision sparked a fire in the truck's engine, which nearly obliterated the front part of the vehicle, reports said, and all five occupants in the truck went to Munson Medical Center with serious injuries, according to the sheriff's office.
DeKuiper, a popular student-athlete at Traverse City West High School, played quarterback for the Titans football team and pitched for the school's varsity baseball team.
After graduating high school in 2019, he went on to play four years of college baseball at Lawrence Technological University.
He had been working as a design engineer at Thompson Surgical Instruments in Traverse City when he died.
His funeral services were last weekend at the New Hope Community Church and DeKuiper was laid to rest at the Grand Traverse Memorial Gardens cemetery following the funeral service.
The crash is still an active investigation, Capt. Brandon Brinks said. As a result, officials did not say if alcohol or speed were factors in the collision.
