Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare, but what happened to the Cerak and Van Ryn families is truly unimaginable.
On April 26, 2006, nine Taylor University students and several staff members were traveling on an Indiana highway when a tractor-trailer collided with their van. Coroners pronounced Whitney Cerak, 19, and four others dead on the scene, while 22-year-old Laura Van Ryn was left in critical condition.
The Ceraks were forced to bury their young daughter, while the Van Ryns sat vigil at Laura's bedside for five weeks before she yawned and changed their lives forever. The Van Ryns noticed that Laura's teeth were not as they remember, which led to them discovering that she also had a naval piercing that wasn't there before. When the girl finally was able to speak, she revealed the horrifying truth. It was Whitney lying there all along.
While it's hard to understand how this family went over a month without noticing, much like these doppelgängers, the two women do share a striking resemblance to each other. Although Whitney has no recollection of the Van Ryn's at her side, the terrible tragedy has brought them close together.
In 2010, Whitney Cerak married her military boyfriend Matt Wheeler in the same church where her funeral was held four years earlier. "We love the Cerak family," Don Van Ryn tells TODAY in the following interview. "We catch up on what's been happening and just encourage each other."
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