Lady Becomes Wife, Widow In 8 Hours

A bridegroom died on his way home with his new bride
after their wedding reception.
William Riley

Knight, who served in the US Army Rangers in the 82nd
Airborne Division, died with another woman, not his wife,
when he was hit and run over by three cars on a road in
Crown Point, Indiana.

He had been married for less than eight hours.

"I went from a being a newlywed to a widow in less than
48 hours – the highest high to the lowest low," his new
wife, now widow, Nikki, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "It's
a blur."

"He was the type of person who was willing to put himself
on the line and support you no matter what," she said by
phone.

Patti Van Til, Lake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman
told CBS Chicago that the newlyweds were on their way
home from their wedding reception when Knight stopped to
give help to a female who was walking up an embankment
after her car had slid off the road.

"He was just trying to do a good thing for somebody in
need," the spokeswoman said.

"It's very sad. We have a job to do here, but sometimes it
just brings you sadness."

Knight's new wife Nikki was in the truck alongside her 49-
year-old husband, when he went to aid the woman in the
other car – Linda Darlington, a 42-year-old – who was also
killed.

"She was still in her wedding dress," Van Til said.
Knight had parked his vehicle in a nearby driveway leaving
Nikki to wait in the car.

"He said, 'We've got to stop, it's late and they need help,'"
Nikki told the Chicago Sun-Times.

"One of the first vehicles was coming eastbound and struck
both individuals," said John Buncich, Lake County Sheriff.
"A car right behind them, the first vehicle, also struck the
two, and unfortunately a third vehicle that eastbound also
struck the couple."

All three motorists who struck Knight and Darlington
stayed at the scene to give evidence to police when they
arrived.

Nikki, a registered nurse, said that from their truck it
looked like a car had driven over a lump of snow when she
heard a thud. When she went out to the scene, she said, and
realised it was Knight and the woman he went to help,
Darlington. Neither had pulses.

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