‘True friend.’ Loved ones mourn Miramar woman killed in Pembroke Pines wreck
For Kahri Willcot, going on weekly solo dates as self care was nonnegotiable.
The 22-year-old from Miramar hailed from a big family — four siblings, 14 aunts and uncles and countless cousins — and was heavily involved in community service at her alma mater, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
That’s why when she didn’t return from an Oct. 19 outing to her local Carrabba’s Italian Grill, her sister, Kayla Willcot, figured she was running some much-needed personal errands.
A visit from eight state troopers later that night revealed she’d died hours earlier in a Pembroke Pines accident on Interstate 75, never making it to happy hour.
“We didn’t believe them,” Kayla Willcot, 25, remembered thinking when officers broke the news. “[Kahri] had just left and said that we were going to talk when she got back.”
Crash leaves family with unanswered questions
The Pembroke Pines Fire Department responded to an Oct. 19 “2-motor vehicle accident” on the northbound entrance ramp to I-75 on Pines Boulevard, PPFD spokesperson Jason Stepp told the Pembroke Pines News.
He said the crash involved a white sedan and a dump truck that left the car’s driver “trapped inside with heavy damage and intrusion noted to the front passenger side.”
The driver was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital for life-threatening injuries, Stepp added, though the agency could not disclose the victim’s identity since the crash is still under investigation.
Kayla Willcot confirmed it was Kahri who was behind the wheel of the Kia Optima and later pronounced dead at the hospital, but she says many questions are still unanswered for the Willcots.
According to the 25-year-old, who doubles as an intensive care unit trauma nurse at Memorial Regional and a high school teacher, her sister was driving the speed limit the night of the crash and lost control of the car “for some unknown reason.”
She said her sister was “very adamant about driver safety” and often drove with her phone in the backseat of the car to remain undistracted, a habit picked up after losing two FAMU friends to a drunk driver in August.
“There’s speculation that someone did hit her in the back of the car,” Kayla Willcot said. “But we don’t know for sure about that.”
To cope, she says her father — a firefighter in California who previously worked for PPFD — has been “throwing himself into the investigation,” piecing together what he can from officers and surveillance footage.
Her mother, also a teacher, has taken time off work to grieve at home while her 14-year-old brother, Mehki, continues to attend school and participate in marching band as an outlet.
Kahri Willcot’s youngest brothers, a 4- and 6-year-old, are still asking about their sister. Kayla Willcot says her family’s main focus is making sure they understand “what this all means.”
“We’re all having a hard time, but we are all coming together as a family and just trying to get things sorted out, figure out what exactly happened,” she said.
‘True friend, scholar, a woman of compassion and impact’
When describing her sister, Kayla Willcot sums up her extensive resume in one phrase: “Hands on with whatever it is she could be hands on with.”
She says it’s why nearly 400 attendees are expected at Kahri Willcot’s memorial and why FAMU President Marva Johnson chartered several buses to send fellow Rattlers from Tallahassee to the Nov. 2 service in Miami.
It’s also how the GoFundMe fundraiser created to support the Willcots has raised over $26,000 as of Oct. 27.
The 22-year-old graduated magna cum laude from FAMU in August with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a major she chose to “learn about the human mind and human interaction,” Kayla says.
Kahri Willcot worked as a resident’s assistant for on-campus housing, was a mentor for the school’s Big Sister, Little Sister program and was the fundraising chair for FAMU’s senior class.
An Instagram post by the university’s Psychology Club described her as a “true friend, scholar, a woman of compassion and impact.”
Hoping to pivot her career plans, Kahri Willcot’s post-graduation plans included a Walt Disney World internship in January and a master’s degree in hospitality and toursim, which she hoped to get from the University of Central Florida, Kayla said.
Kahri Willcot considered working as a flight attendant or on a cruise ship to feed her love for travel, a passion that took her to places like St. Thomas, Aruba, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago while in college.
But above all, Kayla Willcot says she hopes her sister is remembered as the “best symbol of life.”
“She just lived her life. ... Kahri probably traveled more than half the people twice her age,” the older sister said. “I would say that Kahri lived her life more than anybody else that I’ve ever met.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 4:36 PM.
