When Elijah Jung entered St. Edward Catholic Church for the final time, he was accompanied by his family and his best friends.

They pushed his coffin, covered in a white cloth, as his mother’s sobs filled the room. 

Elijah, an incoming senior at West Salem High School, turned 17 one week before his death on a rural road outside of West Salem. 

His car crashed into a tree Tuesday, July 29, around 10:30 p.m., Sgt. Tyrone Jenkins of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office previously told Salem Reporter. The crash was reported at 5:43 a.m. the next morning.

Over 300 people attended the funeral service Thursday, Aug. 14, filling every pew of the Keizer church. Among the crowd were his closest friends, some wearing matching T-shirts featuring a picture of Elijah taken before last year’s prom. Several of his teachers, including from preschool, middle school and high school sat in attendance, along with Salem-Keizer School District leaders. 

Three pastors performed the funeral mass, which is rare in the Catholic tradition, his mother Dayna Jung said in a later interview. But they all asked to be involved, she said.

Father Gary Zerr baptized Elijah. Father Tim Mockaitis gave him his first communion. And Father Athanasius Onyima was one of the first people on the scene of the crash to bless his body with oils.

In his eulogy, Zerr said he watched Elijah grow up. Now the boy would forever be 17.

“We just don’t expect somebody to die at 17. They just walk out of your life, forever, full of life,” he said. “People who ask the question ‘Why?’ are never going to get an adequate answer. It just isn’t the right question. I would like to know, myself.”

Zerr directed much of his speech to the teenagers in the audience. He said that though Elijah will never grow older, his classmates will never forget him. Speaking from experience of losing a classmate as a teen, he said it’s the kind of death that changes the course of one’s life.

He said Elijah’s continuing role will be to remind them to drive carefully and to remember that every moment of life is meaningful.

“The assumptions we make about life are not true. We’re not guaranteed a happy life, or a whole life or long life. We’re only guaranteed that God loves us, our life has meaning. There will never be another Elijah for all of eternity,” Zerr said. 

Elijah’s parents hope to make those lessons stick by renaming Gibson Road after their son, and advocating for safety improvements to prevent another Salem teen driver from crashing.

Advocating for change

Skidmarks from drivers crisscross the route from West Salem to Elijah’s crash site at 4523 Gibson Rd. N.W., about 2.5 miles from the edge of town. Steep ditches and trees border the curves of the rural roads.

Elijah was driving downhill when his car left the road and crashed into a tree. Oregon State Police are still investigating the crash as of Tuesday. Damage to the vehicle indicated Elijah was speeding, according to Jenkins. The curves where the crash happened were in a 25 mph zone.

On Monday, Dayna Jung sat in a lawn chair facing the tree where her son died. 

The tree stands surrounded by dozens of photographs from Elijah’s life, fresh flowers and written notes from friends and family.

Beyond the memorial, few signs of the crash are still visible. But Jung found and pocketed several more small pieces of his car that day, as she had with each visit. The family comes to pray there every night around 10:30 p.m., before returning home where Elijah’s room remains untouched.

While sitting, a puppy wiggled around Jung’s lap. Astra is a fluffy Pomeranian and husky mix, and Elijah had quickly bonded with her since they brought the puppy home in June. Among the photographs at the memorial was one of Astra lying on Elijah’s face as he rests his eyes.

Other photos gave windows into his life. Jung smiled, pointing to a gym selfie. Elijah was athletic, and particular about eating healthy. He’d been involved in football and basketball starting at Walker Middle School, and as a child always looked forward to competing in the Awesome 3000 race.

He worked out at the YMCA as often as twice a day, to the point where the organization sought his feedback through frequent emails. A former board member herself, Dayna Jung had been the one to kickstart the visits.

“We always made fun of him, that he was like an honorary member of the Y (board),” Jung said, and laughed.

The memorial featured photos with his cousins, of which Elijah was a favored babysitter and a guiding light. He was especially patient and protective of a young cousin with autism, Jung said. 

Some of his cousins joined Danya Jung at the site Monday, entertaining Astra as their mom carefully cleaned and arranged the memorial which was knocked astray by wind. His grandfather, Mike Jung, helped. 

One of the larger portraits there was a selfie Elijah took on the beach during a crabbing trip in June with his grandpa Mike.

During that trip, Mike Jung said Elijah wouldn’t gossip about his friend’s business with him when prompted, even alone on the beach. It’s the kind of protection of privacy which made Elijah a good friend, he said.

Elijah’s friends had a diverse range of difficult life experiences, Dayna Jung said, and Elijah would always pick up the phone if someone needed help. Group photos at the site included a friend he’d known since kindergarten and some he’d grown up with in West Salem High School’s dual language program.

Elijah helped one friend improve his GPA and convinced him to join the football team, she said.

His family said that a lot of people considered him their best friend, and each one was equally important to him.

“To him, all of them were best friends,” Mike Jung said.

During that crabbing trip, he said Elijah bought a sticker with the U.S. Air Force logo on it to take home. Elijah wasn’t afraid of heights and loved roller coasters, which some family members thought would make him a good fit for the service.

“I think it was only a matter of time before he was going to go and do some skydiving,” Dayna Jung said. 

He’d also already started his own window-cleaning business and had met his return on investment with one job. He’d invested in stocks, done his research and made thousands in profit. His grandpa said it showed ambition beyond his 17 years.

But Elijah’s path wasn’t set yet. He’d been applying to scholarships just days before the crash. He planned to attend Portland State University before transferring to either the University of Oregon, Oregon State University or a college in Miami, Florida.

“He would have been phenomenal at any route that he would have taken. He was a very talented kid,” his mother said.

It’s that lost future which made his parents want to give back to the community that supported them in the weeks since his death, including multiple requests for them to set up an online fundraiser.

“The reality of the situation is that we’re not going to pay for our son’s college, for his wedding. None of that. We will pay for our son’s funeral,” she said, beginning to cry. “We’re trying to see what kind of support we can provide for teens with some of the funds.”

They’re still considering ways to continue his legacy of being a safe person for teens to talk with. But they’ve already decided some of the money will go to support a West Salem High School graduate next year through a memorial scholarship.

They’d also like to fund a study for safety improvements to Gibson Road Northwest, which has seen several crashes in the last few years, according to state data. Loved ones laid out their own traffic cones, hoping it will remind people to mind the curves. She’d like the county to consider measures such as additional signage for speed and warnings about deer.

Elijah was a good driver, she said. He studied hard and passed his driver’s test on the first try. He always kept his hands on the steering wheel and shuffled them to make turns, as recommended for safety. He had frequently driven down that stretch of Gibson Road and knew it well.

She feels responsible for his death, and said she’ll always wonder what she could have said or done differently to prevent it.

She doesn’t want any other family to feel the same void that she does.

“We definitely want to make Gibson Road safer,” Dayna Jung said.

The family is seeking to change the road’s name to something honoring Elijah. She said many teens drive down it to get to a local hangout spot.

Last week, the family came across a teenager who’d gotten his car stuck in a nearby ditch. She said that told her something needed to be done.

“The name changing of the road is not to make us as a family feel any happier, because our lives forever are not the same anymore,” she said. “We’re hopeful that if we were to change it to something that honors Elijah, that our West Salem kiddos and the other kiddos could say like ‘Who was Elijah?’ and that can get them to think twice.”

As of Tuesday, the fundraiser has brought in over $8,600 out of a $13,000 goal. Much of it came from an anonymous $5,000 donation.

“I saw that $5,000 anonymous donation, it made us feel like: Okay. The community does feel this is important and something needs to get done,” Dayna said.

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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