Mother, child identified in fatal Rohnert Park crash

Flower bouquets, candles, and a teddy bear placed along a Snyder Lane sidewalk marked the Rohnert Park intersection where a 2-year-old girl was struck and killed and her mother seriously injured Wednesday.

The child was identified by family members as Calli Murray, a curly haired toddler, who would have turned 3-years-old on Christmas Day.

Calli had been playing at Sunrise Park with her mother, Ling Murray, 42, when the pair began to walk home to their apartment around the corner after it grew dark.

They began crossing Snyder Lane near Medical Center Drive at about 5:30 p.m. when a driver failed to stop and struck them.

Police identified the driver as 18-year-old Kaitlyn Dunaway of Rohnert Park, who was behind the wheel of a 1997 Honda.

Rohnert Park police did not release any details on whether the child and her mother were in a crosswalk at the time of the crash: "The point of origin and cause of the collision is still under investigation," said Lt. Jeff Taylor, in a release issued late Thursday.

No other information on the crash or potential charges in the case was released.

Calli's mother suffered major injuries and was in critical condition Thursday at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, hospital staff said.

Family members said the injuries were serious, and she would have to undergo multiple surgeries.

"She's doing very well at this point in time," said her step-father-in-law, Al Andres of Hartly, Del., reached on his cell phone at the hospital Thursday afternoon. "They're essentially keeping her extremely well sedated. They've done surgery to put her pelvis back in place."

Calli died shortly after the collision, her family said.

Calli's father, Jeff Murray, 46, and half-brother Tian Tian Li, 14, who goes by Corey, spent much of Thursday at Ling Murray's side at the hospital with their family.

The mother's face was injured and she couldn't talk or open her eyes, but could hear and squeeze a hand in response, said family friend Greg Fletcher, 46, of Petaluma.

Fletcher, Jeff Murray's best man when the Murrays married about four years ago, said he brought his friend his wife's cell phone, which had photos of Calli, to the hospital Thursday morning.

"When I gave it to him, he opened up the phone and gave the screen a kiss," Fletcher said, speaking with permission of the husband.

Jeff Murray is "one of those go-to guys who knows what to do when and how to do it," he said.

When an officer came to give his condolences, Jeff Murray told the officer that he hoped to tell the driver that he forgave her and she shouldn't let the tragedy hold her back, Fletcher said.

"He said, &‘I know I'll eventually have to talk to the girl who hit them, and I want to let her know that it was an accident,'" Fletcher said.

A memorial shrine for Calli started with a single teddy bear holding three hearts, with the words "love you lots," that was placed early Thursday below a sign for Sunrise Park on a corner at Snyder Lane and Medical Center Drive.

It grew throughout the day as people brought flowers, stuffed animals, dolls, heart-shaped balloons and other mementos. People lit candles as it grew dark.

Someone set up a pink deck umbrella to protect the memorial as it began to rain.

For Al Andres, the grandfather, it was a day to grieve, remember and support family members.

"She talked in two languages, and she'd tell you just what she thought," Andres said of Calli, who spoke English and Mandarin Chinese, her mother's native language.

"She called me, &‘Papa Al,'" said Andres, who tried to hold back tears as he spoke about his granddaughter.

Police paint marked debris in an area of the street near a crosswalk bridging Snyder Lane.

People at neighboring businesses called the street a difficult and busy thoroughfare.

"It's horrendous trying to cross," said Nancy Young, director of the Redwood Country Kids Club across the street from the park.

The crosswalk leads from the park, sidewalk and a bus stop on the west side of the lane to child care centers and medical offices on the lane's eastern side.

Area businesses have been asking for a safer crosswalk for years, she said.

"We started in 1985 asking for some kind of traffic signal, but nothing's ever been done," Young said.

Several child care centers, pediatric medical offices, the park and the nearby Lawrence E. Jones Middle School bring a great deal of pedestrian traffic to the area, particularly children, said Pam Roth, a receptionist at Briggs Pediatric Dentistry on the corner of Snyder Lane and Medical Center Drive.

"Its really up to drivers to pay attention and they don't always do that," Roth said.

Traffic sped down the street Thursday well above the marked 35 mph speed limit.

A woman walking a small dog stood at the crosswalk and waited for several minutes for traffic to stop. After a few attempts to cross the street, she appeared to give up and walked toward the stoplight at Rohnert Park Expressway.

Shortly after dark Thursday, family friend Hollie Weathers shed tears as she placed flowers at the memorial.

"When I picture Calli I just see this big smile," Weathers said. "She had big cheeks, she had her daddy's cheeks."

Staff Writer Cathy Bussewitz contributed to this story.