Friends grieve for 23-year-old man killed when tree crushed his car during storm

MONROE, Wash. -- Friends are coming together to remember the 23-year-old man who was killed during Tuesday's windstorm when a tree fell and crushed his car while he driving near Monroe.

“I still can't believe it happened,” Ariana Duncan said Wednesday. “A tree came down and hit him. How does that happen?”

It’s the question a lot of people are asking after finding out Grant Strinden died in Tuesday's storm. Sheriff’s investigators say the tree came down and struck Strinden’s car as he drove on Ben Howard Road. That road remains closed Wednesday night.

“You don't understand why,” said Nick Spencer. “Why does someone like this have to leave us?”

“Doesn’t really seem like it's real, like maybe it's a dream or something,” added Duncan. “I can only imagine how his mom and his family feels. It's tragic.”

Friends said Strinden was a family man, who just starting to plan his future with his fiancée, Ronicka, and her 7-year-old daughter, Kandyce.

“At first he was a little hesitant about taking the father role, but he really jumped in with Kandyce,”  Duncan said. “Now she calls him Dad. They were really cute together.”

His friends are now trying to help Strinden’s fiancée by sharing their memories of him and raising money on a Go Fund Me page.

“It’s amazing how many people have come together already just in the first 10 hours,” Spencer said. “There wasn't a place you could go that he hadn't touched somebody's life. He was that type of person.”

If you’d like to donate to the Strinden family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/GrantStrinden

For a list of current road closures in Snohomish County, go to http://www.snoco.org/App4/SPW/pwapp/roads/emclosure/index.html.