Christmas night, AHS lost sophomore Annie Vu when her family was rear ended at 105 mph by a Dodge Ram truck on their way home from a family Christmas dinner. The crash happened around 10:39 p.m. on I-495 headed eastbound at the 49-mile-marker in their Toyota Sienna minivan. Along with Annie, the family also lost their 75-year-old grandmother Su Nguyen. Annie’s 12-year-old brother, Andy, a 6th grader at Holmes Middle School suffered major brain injuries and her mother and father, Duy Cao and An Vu, are recovering from minor injuries. Annie and her grandmother passed away in Fairfax Hospital a few hours after the crash. 

Yesterday, the perpetrator was identified as 48-year-old Devin Juliana from Steubenville, Ohio. Both him and a 43-year-old passenger were taken to the hospital after the crash. Juliana was charged with reckless driving, a Class 1 misdemeanor, according to Virginia Code, that is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of maximum $2,500. However, once found, Juliana may be charged further in coming days. This is the first information about the perpetrator the Vu family has received in the two weeks since the crash.

The Vu household has been coping with additional support from their extended family. Annie’s paternal aunt and godmother Kathie Vu stayed with Annie’s parents in the hospital the night of the crash, waiting for any updates on the three who were badly injured, with Annie and Su who were in “critical condition.” Since then, Kathie, along with her family, have been spending a great amount of time with theirs, praying frequently and sharing meals together to keep them company.

Duy and An “Were so worried about Annie and Andy and everybody else that they really didn’t even check into the emergency room to get treated. It was just really chaos,” Kathie said. “We were at the hospital for a very long time and it was just one bad news after another.”

Andy suffered a brain fracture and internal bleeding and was placed in the children’s ICU for close monitoring. Their father also sustained two broken ribs and bleeding in the brain. 

“We had to pay all of our attention to Andy because of his brain injury,” Kathie said. “When he finally woke up, he asked us where Annie was, and we couldn’t tell him, because we were worried it would only impact his injury more. So we waited until almost three days before we told him that both his grandmother and Annie had passed.”

Andy continues to experience headaches and has trouble concentrating for extended periods of time, so he has not yet returned to school and will likely need more time to recover. Their parents have not gone back to work as they focus on recovery and healing. 

As their family deals with the immense grief of such sudden losses, they have been met with an outpouring of both emotional and financial support from the community. 

To ensure the family can pay for medical expenses, fund the funerals of both Annie and Su as well as to support their most likely upcoming legal battle, a GoFundMe page was set up by Annie’s paternal cousin, 24 year-old Rachel Vu, who she was extremely close with. 

Their original goal of $20k has been greatly surpassed. As of Jan. 17, when the GoFundMe was closed, a total of $86,850 was raised. 

“It’s been unbelievable how the community has reacted to all of this and it’s a comfort to the family. There were so many people that you know that donated that we don’t even know who they are and they have been so generous, whether it’s with their kind wishes, or the [donations] they gave,” Kathie said. “That’s something that we have talked about as a family, over the last few days—that we’ve taken away from this experience in such a positive way of how everyone has come together and helped us during this time,” she added.

However, Juliana’s unknown location and pending charges are still looming over the family.

According to the Virginia State Police via FFXNOW, “Virginia State Police is currently attempting to locate Juliana to serve the warrant and conduct an interview with him.”

The family hopes that he will eventually be charged  involuntary manslaughter—a Class 5 felony punishable with up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $2,500—to not only serve justice to the Vu family, but prevent Juliana from harming another family in a similar way. 

To do so, the family has hired a lawyer; however, according to Rachel, they have met some legal complications along the way.

“They found drugs in [Juliana’s] urine, but that doesn’t mean that he was on drugs that night. Drugs can be in your system for 30 days,” she said. 

Furthermore, Rachel shared that the police did not order a toxicology report for Juliana, explaining, as she recalls, that they described him as “coherent at the time of the [crash].” Due to this, it is still unknown whether or not Juliana was intoxicated the night of the crash.

“[We are facing] issues [pursuing an] involuntary manslaughter [charge] because the police did not get the test that would’ve given us evidence for a stronger case,” she added.

Without a foolproof legal case to support them, the Vu family may not achieve the justice they seek. 

As the investigation is still ongoing, this story will be updated with new information once available.

Annie’s friends and family cite their memories with her…