Community rallies around family of recent BYU-I graduate killed in crash
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REXBURG — Eastern Idaho is rallying around the family of a Ukrainian Brigham Young University-Idaho graduate who was killed in a crash Monday.
Neighbors have identified the man killed in the crash as Leonid “Leo” Pihulevych, a husband and father of two. Pihulevych was in a single-vehicle rollover crash around 3:45 p.m. at 5000 East and 500 South near Rexburg.
Pihulevych graduated in July from BYU-Idaho with a degree in accounting with plans to move his family to California for work as soon as his visa paperwork went through.
“We’re just all so devastated,” Pihulevych’s neighbor Sarah Henderson told EastIdahoNews.com.
To help with the expenses Pihulevych’s family faces, Henderson and her husband started a GoFundMe page. As of Wednesday morning, the page has over $14,000 of a $55,000 goal.
Pihulevych wife’s and children don’t have any extended family in the United States, but they do have many friends who are trying to help them secure housing for the future.
“We don’t even have the words, because I can’t even believe she is going through this,” Henderson said. “Their life was just about to begin and take off.”
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Funeral arrangements for Pihulevych have not yet been announced as his family in Ukraine is seeing if they can travel to the United States.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office would not confirm Pihulevych’s death and has not released any additional details about the crash.
Our attorneys tell us we need to put this disclaimer in stories involving fundraisers: EastIdahoNews.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries.