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They were ‘opposites who completed each other’

Couple killed in horrific Pukalani crash remembered

Shortly after her death in a violent crash in October 2016, Debi Wylie’s co-workers at Oceanic Time Warner Cable brought their company trucks to line the side of Haleakala Highway near the memorial. Pukalani residents Traci Winegarner (left) and Debi Wylie are shown in a family photo. The partners died at the scene of an Oct. 8, 2016, crash on Haleakala Highway when their pickup truck was hit by a speeding car that ran a red light at Makani Road.

Pukalani residents Traci Winegarner and Debi Wylie were “opposites that completed each other,” spending their free time together cooking, gardening and caring for their animals.

“Traci was full of fun,” recalled her older sister, Charnan Carroll. “She had these intense blue eyes. You could see the laughter bubbling behind her eyes. She would walk into a room full of joy.

“And Debi was a little more serious — a great person, but she was known to be a little gruff at times. They adored each other. They were one of those ‘opposites attract’ that worked.

“They were so devoted to our family. They would do anything for their friends.”

The couple died Oct. 8, 2016, when their white 1998 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was broadsided by a 2011 silver Nissan Altima driven by Ashley Wellman, who ran a red light while traveling at least 127 mph uphill on Haleakala Highway, police said.

A roadside memorial near the intersection of Makani Road and Haleakala Highway has been put up near where Traci Winegarner and Debi Wylie were killed in a vehicle crash on Oct. 8, 2016. This photo was taken Tuesday morning in Pukalani. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Wylie was driving and Winegarner was a passenger in the truck that had been turning left onto the highway from Makani Road when the vehicle was hit so hard that its engine flew out and landed on the road.

After colliding into the truck, the Nissan crossed the centerline and hit a vehicle stopped in traffic, which was pushed back into the vehicle stopped behind it, police said.

Winegarner and Wylie died at the scene of the crash.

Six other people — including Wellman, who fractured her right foot and left toe — were injured in the four-vehicle crash that shut down Haleakala Highway for hours.

While talking with an emergency room worker at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Wellman acknowledged seeing that the traffic light was red, according to a police investigation into the crash. Wellman reportedly said she “was originally going up to Haleakala Crater to be at peace” but changed her mind and “just wanted to die.”

When a police officer talked to Wellman that afternoon, “she refused to give a statement and said she wanted to contact her attorney,” according to the police report. The officer noted that “she appeared alert and coherent.”

An emergency room doctor said he was putting a 48-hour psychiatric hold on Wellman after being told by another doctor that she had suicidal intentions the night before, according to the report.

Police said drugs were a contributing factor in the crash, with tests showing the active ingredient of marijuana in Wellman’s blood.

Last week, Wellman, 34, of Waiehu was acquitted by reason of insanity of murder charges.

Second Circuit Judge Peter Cahill said three doctors who conducted psychiatric or psychological examinations of Wellman agreed that, at the time of the crash, she was affected by a physical or mental disease, disorder or defect that substantially impaired her capacity to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law.

The three doctors also found that Wellman, who reported that she takes four mental health medications, was now mentally fit to proceed in her case. She was transferred from the Maui Community Correctional Center to the Hawaii State Hospital pending a review hearing Aug. 29.

Carroll, who attended the court hearing last week with her youngest sister, Veronica, wanted to share stories about Winegarner and Wylie, in the wake of the court ruling acquitting Wellman.

“I have a lot of anger and resentment and confusion and questions,” Carroll said. “Traci and Debi — really, there was no voice for them.

“Their lives matter, and that’s why I wanted to at least be able to acknowledge them in a public forum.”

Carroll said she didn’t want to generate negative comments.

“I hope there are no hate posts because I know there’s a lot of anger in the community and rightfully so,” Carroll said. “I would love for people who knew Traci and/or Debi — if they want to post something loving or in memory. I’d love to see the community be able to give a little tribute to them.”

Traci and Debi

The couple had been together for several years.

Winegarner, 57, had a housecleaning business that she ran for more than 20 years, starting in California.

“Her clients trusted her totally,” Carroll said. “She really was committed to her business and to her clients. They all kind of adopted her. Her clients became her friends.

“Traci was funny and artistic and quirky. She had this way of walking into a room and making everything fun and everybody loved her. She was vivacious and outgoing and so sweet. And she was the best hugger in the world. She would put her arms around you and you could feel her heart.”

Wylie, 63, had lived on Maui for more than 30 years and knew many people, including through her job as an installer at Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

Shortly after their deaths, Oceanic installers brought their company trucks to line the side of Haleakala Highway for a vigil near a roadside memorial for the women.

“They had lives that contributed to the Maui community, but really contributed to their world of friends and family and co-workers,” Carroll said.

Winegarner’s brother-in-law, Eric Paul Shaffer, who lives on Oahu with wife Veronica, the youngest Winegarner sister, said more than 100 people attended a gathering in remembrance of the couple Nov. 12, 2016, at Keokea Park in Kula.

In a tribute to the couple that he read that day, Shaffer described how “those amazing cooks” created an annual “Thanksgiving Miracle” of food at the Upcountry home of Winegarner’s parents, Charles and Nance Winegarner.

“I loved visiting Debi and Traci in their little house, which was filled with cats, a mynah and even a chicken for a while,” Shaffer said in his tribute. “They made one family of all that life and were gentle and nurturing, accepting and inclusive of all those species. Together, these two created a loving household.”

Their household included six cats and a mynah bird with a crippled foot. “Both of them just loved animals,” Carroll said.

After their deaths, a friend took the mynah bird. A couple adopted all six cats, who now live indoors, Carroll said.

Shaffer remembered Wylie “with her baseball cap pulled down tight on her head, the brim low over her eyes, her ponytail drawn back and rubber-banded, appearing rough and gruff, but speaking the most generous words and doing the kindest deeds.”

“Debi was amazing,” he said. “Nearly everything you talked about, she had done, built, connected, fixed, or heard about, and her stories of running cable, making jewelry, and driving the roads of Maui were endless and entertaining.”

While cleaning out the couple’s house after their deaths, Carroll said she learned more about Wylie, who was from Texas.

“She had an interesting past,” Carroll said. “She was an accomplished horse rider and trainer. She had a pilot’s license. As a child, she was thrown off a horse into a fence and a stake was driven into her head. She survived that.”

Wylie loved to go fishing, both near shore and deep sea, with friends, Carroll said.

In his tribute, Shaffer said: “I am happiest and most gratified to remember how much Traci and Debi loved each other, spending all their free time together, relaxing or finishing chores around the house and garden, doing everything as a team . . .

“In the best way, Debi and Traci were opposites that completed each other,” he said. “Both had sweet hearts, which is probably why they were each other’s sweethearts. They were always hospitable and gracious, inviting everyone to come over, drink beer, crash on the couch, watch movies and lounge in the hot tub beneath the bright stars of Pukalani.”

Shaffer read his poem “Traci’s Sunset,” which he wrote as a tribute. It will be published in the next issue of Bamboo Ridge. And he has been asked to read the poem Thursday at the Honolulu Museum of Art for an event called “A Think and a Drink,” with three other local writers and a small group of the benefactors of the museum.

Shaffer said he expects to be asked about the accident and “will tell what I know.”

Winegarner was the middle of three sisters who were born in Indiana before moving to Southern California as toddlers. In 1970, when their parents became missionaries for a nondenominational Christian church, they lived in Indonesia.

“We all ended up in Northern California as adults,” Carroll said.

She and her sister Traci were roommates at one time. On weekends, they would pick a direction and drive, she recalled.

“We would get in the car and we would drive, not knowing where we would end up, and we would find towns or events or places we weren’t looking for,” Carroll said. “We would have these wonderful, spontaneous daytrips. That’s one of the things I will always mourn because I thought someday she and I would have the opportunity to drive together again.”

In 1990, the sisters vacationed on Maui.

“We had a blast,” Carroll said. “We rented a convertible, we ran around. We did all the tourist things. I fell in love with Maui.”

Three months later, Carroll moved to Maui.

“Seven or eight years after I moved here, everybody followed me,” she said. “After many, many years apart, we all came back as a family on Maui. We have differences, but at the core of our family there’s always been a bond.

“We grew up in one of those households where we would sing in the car when we did family trips,” Carroll said. “Traci had this sweet voice, and she loved to harmonize and laugh. She had the best sense of humor.”

The crash

Wylie and Winegarner were living in a cottage “right down the street from the accident,” Carroll said.

A neighbor on the same property said “they were laughing and they were having a good time when they left the house,” Carroll said. “Literally, three minutes later, five minutes later, she heard the accident.”

“There were a lot of people who were there,” Carroll said. “It was a traumatic accident and it traumatized a lot of people. It was senseless.”

She said the only solace she could find in the crash was that the couple were together.

“I’m thankful that there was no extended suffering, and I’m thankful that if they had to go, they could go together,” Carroll said.

“I really hope that people can recognize this as a tribute of love to both the girls,” she said. “I want to also express my appreciation for all of the first responders — police, fire, American Medical Response. I know that it was also traumatic for them. I am appreciative of the quick response and the effort that they also put into the investigation of the accident.”

Carroll said their parents “probably have suffered the most because of this.”

“Traci was their caretaker,” she said. “She would cook for Mom and Dad. Traci would stop by several times a week and make sure the shopping was done.

“There have been huge changes in our family life.”

For days after the crash, their mother would ask, “Where’s Traci?”

“Every day she would have to relive this for four to six weeks,” Carroll said. “In the last year and a half, her decline has been extreme.” Their mother now lives in a care facility on Oahu on the same property where their father lives in an apartment.

With their other sister gone, “Veronica and I have become very, very close,” Carroll said. “My youngest sister has been my lifesaver through all of this.”

She said she didn’t think there was a reason for the crash.

“They just were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Carroll said. “I watch the traffic very differently now. We seem to forget that we’re all driving around in one ton, two tons, three tons of (vehicle) and this is not the place to act out our frustrations and our anger and our sorrow, whatever we’re going through emotionally.

“I’d love to see Maui slow down again, and I’d love us to be ohana on the roads. There’s too many bullies, and we take driving these vehicles for granted.”

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

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