CHICAGO — Emotions overcame Katie Jordan as she reflected on a tragic crash that injured her husband and killed her dog.
“It was the worst of my life,” Jordan said. “At 5:16, he called me screaming on the phone that an accident had happened and that Echo was hit and that I needed to come right away.”
The incident occurred Friday evening, Sept. 30, when Jordan’s husband, Kurt Steiner, took their 8-year-old dog, Echo, out for her daily walk.
“He feels so guilty but it wasn’t his fault at all,” Jordan said.
Police say the two were crossing the street at Berteau and Pulaski in Albany Park when they were hit by a car. Steiner sustained a fractured back and broken leg. The couple’s beloved dog did not make it.
“We just loved our dog Echo so very much because she was just the sweetest, kindest dog and she just completed our family,” an emotional Jordan said.
Police say the driver of a Mercury Grand Marquis, who hit them, didn’t stop.
“It’s just not fair that somebody could just hit them and just go away. It’s not fair,” Jordan said.
But Jordan said she turned her grief into action. She’s canvassed the neighborhood and helped police find a picture of the car involved in the hit-and-run.
“I couldn’t just keep sitting in the house and doing nothing, so I thought that if I had the strength to help, then I wanted to help them,” she said.
Now she’s hoping her community will do the same.
“We need to find him to have justice and closure for us to be able to heal,” Jordan said.
The family also set up a GoFundMe to help pay for medical expenses. The family adds that anything that exceeds their goal will be donated to the family of the toddler who was killed in a hit-and-run just a few blocks north.