Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WILLARD, Box Elder County — A memorial honoring Utah Highway Patrol trooper Eric Ellsworth has been put up in Box Elder County right off of I-15 near Willard.
This memorial was put up Monday on private property by a family who spent their own money to do it. They don't want to be identified or even interviewed, they just want Ellsworth to be remembered.
The cross with his name on it is big — 20 feet tall and 12 feet wide. Two American flags and a thin blue line flag are behind it, as well as lights so it can be seen at night.
“It’s just, I mean, it’s beautiful,” UHP Lt. Lee Perry said. “It sends a message that, you know what? Eric is gone, but he will never be forgotten.”
Ellsworth, badge 395 with the Utah Highway Patrol, was hit by a car on Nov. 18 while trying to direct other vehicles around a traffic hazard along a rural stretch of state Route 13 at 13600 North near Garland, Box Elder County. He was hit by a 16-year-old girl, described by the UHP as a "new driver." Both Ellsworth's family and the UHP have each offered forgiveness to the young girl, saying they realize this was truly an accident.
Ellsworth died Nov. 22 after several days in the intensive care unit at Intermountain Medical Center.
“Losing one of my troopers is like losing one of my kids,” Perry said. “And that’s what losing Eric was … like losing a child. Not that he was, and I wouldn’t want to take him on because he could beat me up. He was a lot stronger than I was, and I knew that, but I loved Eric dearly, and it hurts.”
Perry was Ellsworth's lieutenant, and he still visits Ellsworth's grave from time to time and makes sure Ellsworth’s widow, Janica, and his three sons, Bennett, Ian and Oliver, are OK.
“They are doing about as well as can be expected,” Perry said. “They miss Eric dearly, like all of us do.”
Related
'Well done, trooper': Eric Ellsworth remembered as 'a hero among us'
At 6-foot-2 with 22-inch biceps, some called Utah Highway Patrol trooper Eric Ellsworth the strongest, most fit trooper they'd ever seen.But when they saw this memorial and heard it was built by a family who didn’t want to be identified, they couldn’t believe it.
“Best kept secret I’ve ever seen in Box Elder County because none of us in the highway patrol had a clue this was happening,” he said.
The memorial and cross is not a state project. The Utah Department of Public Safety had nothing to do with it. It can't because of a lawsuit over past memorials demanding that crosses be removed from highways on the principle of separation of church and state. But that can't stop a private citizen from doing this on their own property.
“This was something they felt needed to be done themselves, and they went out and raised the money themselves and they built this and this memorial. They built it. They put it up, and it’s just beautiful,” Perry said.
“Eric Ellsworth is part of this community and always will be a part of this community.”
Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc
