POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – Family members of the 65-year-old woman killed when a Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue helicopter crashed into her apartment last Monday are now asking for help paying for her final expenses.
Lurean Wheaton, along with 50-year-old BSFR Capt. Terryson Jackson, who was in the helicopter, were both killed in the fiery crash, which also hurt four others.
It happened at Wheaton’s apartment near Northwest 10th Street and Dixie Highway.
Family members have started a GoFundMe page to help bring her body back to her native South Carolina and cover funeral expenses.
“I still want her to have a burial and a grave, in spite of how the remains are,” Angela Williams, Wheaton’s niece, said.
Wheaton was sleeping in bed when the nearly 25-year-old chopper crashed through.
“For it to go through her apartment, just out the blue and she (doesn’t ever) really go out unless she (goes) to the grocery store, when they say she had been killed, I never imagined nothing like this happening,” Williams said.
It’s not yet clear whether the Broward Sheriff’s Office will help cover Wheaton’s expenses.
An attorney told Local 10 News that the family could benefit financially from a lawsuit or settlement, based off of where the investigation leads and who or what entity is found to be at fault.
It’s a process likely to take years to play out.
Local 10 News contacted BSO for comment Monday but hadn’t heard back at the time of publication.