'Kindness and innocence': Parents remember daughter killed in crash with alleged drunk driver

The parents of a 24-year-old woman killed in a crash involving an alleged drunk driver earlier this month are remembering their daughter for her kindness and willingness to help others.

Jordyn Reimer’s parents said their daughter was the designated driver for a group of friends the night the driver of a pickup truck collided with her vehicle in a residential neighbourhood in Transcona.

Doug Reimer and Karen Reimer sat down with CTV News Winnipeg Wednesday to talk about their daughter after a 28-year-old man charged in the collision was granted bail last week.

“I couldn’t wrap my head around… how could my daughter be killed in a residential 50 kilometre an hour part of our community where there’s stop signs everywhere,” Karen said.

Reimer was a graduate of Transcona Collegiate and Edmonton’s MacEwan University where she was a member of the three-time champion MacEwan Griffins women’s hockey team, sharing the ice with Nikki, one of her three sisters.

Doug and Karen said Jordyn was in a happy place in her life when she was killed in the collision in the early hours of May 1 while visiting her hometown in the residential neighbourhood where she grew up.

The 24-year-old, who had finished school in Alberta, was living and working in Brandon. Her parents said they often worried about her safety when she travelled to and from Winnipeg, not while she was navigating residential streets within their own neighbourhood.

Jordyn’s parents said she was on her way to pick up friends when the driver of a truck collided with her vehicle at the intersection of Kildare Avenue West and Bond Street around 2 a.m.

When she didn’t show up and couldn’t be reached by phone, friends and family went looking for Jordyn, some eventually came upon the collision scene.

“They knew something horrible had happened,” Karen said. “When you talk about the impact on a family’s life, we’re always going to have that impact forever without our girl. It breaks my heart for our other girls.”

MAN CHARGED IN CRASH GRANTED BAIL

Tyler Scott Goodman, 28, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death, impaired driving causing death and failing to stop at the scene of an accident involving death.

None of the allegations have been tested in court and Goodman is presumed innocent.

A judge granted him bail Friday on several conditions including living with a surety, not driving, abstaining from alcohol and drugs and curfew checks.

Details and submissions made during the bail hearing for the accused are under a publication ban.

Mat Schwartz, Goodman’s lawyer, declined comment.

Reimer’s parents said while they’re disappointed with the bail decision they aren’t surprised but the allegations against the driver have left them feeling frustrated because they always stressed the importance to their daughters of organizing a safe and sober ride home.

“Part of the frustration is what else can a family do to keep their children safe,” Karen said. “I think we did everything and anything anybody could do.”

Being the designated driver is something Jordyn’s parents said their daughter often volunteered to do for friends and family.

Trevor Ens, president of the Winnipeg chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has met with the family and said Jordyn and her friends were trying to do the right thing.

“Impaired driving is not tolerable in any sense,” Ens said. “We have an individual who was trying to do her part to help her friends to do the right thing. Her friends were making the right choice. She was making the right choice.”

WOMAN REMEMBERED FOR HER 'KINDNESS AND INNOCENCE'

Jordyn’s dad Doug said his daughter touched so many lives and got emotional describing what stands out about her.

“Just her overall kindness and innocence.” Doug said. “She just cared so much about everybody else.”

“She was always that one who was laughing, smiling, happy. Even when she wasn’t happy, she tried to make everyone around her happy.”

Doug and Karen said their daughter’s death has been difficult on her boyfriend and sisters and countless others who knew Jordyn.

“She brought our family sheer joy and happiness,” Karen said. “She was the glue for her sisters, their bonds.”

They’re cherishing a blanket and stuffed animal their daughter had kept with her since she was an infant.

And her parents said Jordyn’s beloved dog Sadie has been waiting by the door for her to come home.

“It’s going to be hard not to diminish a happy moment,” Doug said. “It’ll be tainted with sadness forever.”