‘We're broken'; Family of Urbana deadly crash victim reflects on a life cut short
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — 20-year-old Katie Abraham spent her last days at the University of Illinois visiting friends.
'They're travelling around, they [were] seeing friends,' Katie's dad Joe Abraham said.
Hours away in Glenview, Joe and Katie's stepmom, Michelle, learned they would never see her again.
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'It's some type of numbness,' Joe said. 'It's not real, like you're in another universe, and especially in the way that it happened, right? Senseless, [it] should have never happened.'
The Urbana Police Department said Katie was one of five in a stopped car near Coler and University Avenues in Urbana. That's when a car driven by 29-year-old Julio Cucul Bol of Guatemala hit them. Police said he fled the scene on foot.
Prior to being identified as Bol, police said he gave authorities an alias and used falsified Mexican paperwork. Bol was arrested in Texas three days after the crash on a bus headed to Mexico.
'It's a free for all,' Joe said. 'Come here, you get whatever you want and do whatever you want. That's what it feels like, and maybe it's raw and that's why I think it feels that way.'
Katie's family wants justice, but is keeping their focus on her, a decorated athlete with an ear for music and an unforgettable smile.
'She won so many awards for water polo her senior year of high school,' Michelle said. 'I can't even remember what there were so many.'
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But, her dad said that sports weren't her only talents.
'She was so great at pulling together playlists,' Joe added. 'If we were doing any one thing or any event, she always seemed to have the right playlist that kind of fit.'
The Abraham family, now without a daughter and sister, is forever changed.
'I think it's been especially difficult on the other two, Ben and Lauren,' Michelle said. 'Lauren and Katie were only about a year apart, so they were supposed to grow old together.'
All that's left is a wish to turn back the clock to see Katie one more time.
'You'd see her walk through the door, and it was like you're so happy to see her you can't stand it,' Joe said. 'That's what I'm going to miss the most is the fact that I'll never experience that. And I didn't appreciate it at the time, I was just happy to see her.'
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Katie was one of two women who died in the crash. 21-year-old Chloe Polzin of Deerfield was the second victim. Police said the three others in the car have all left the hospital.
Urbana Lieutenant Cory Koker said they are waiting for Bol's arrival at the Champaign County Jail.
Katie's family urges people who saw Bol on the night of the crash to talk to authorities. They're hopeful that he is punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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