Victims of deadly tornadoes: Navy veteran, loving grandfather and judge were among those killed

Eight people died and eight people are missing at a candle factory that had more than 100 workers inside when the tornado system devastated the town of Mayfield in Kentucky, the spokesperson for Mayfield told CNN on Sunday. the company, Bob Ferguson. Initially, there were concerns that dozens of people were killed, but Ferguson said more than 90 workers escaped.

Robert Daniel met his son at a hair salon on Friday morning to give him an early Christmas present.

It was the last time the two saw each other, Zachary Daniel told CNN. Her father was killed when tornadoes swept through Mayfield around midnight Friday.

“That night was just horrible. I still can’t believe it,” Zachary Daniel said of his 47-year-old father’s death.

His father was on a work release program and on Friday night it was his first time working a night shift at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, said Zachary, who also works there.

Zachary called his father a great person and a loving grandfather.

Brian Crick, 43

District Judge Brian Crick was also killed in the tornadoes that hit western Kentucky, according to a statement from the Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court.

“This is a shocking loss to his family, his community and the justice system, and his family is in our prayers,” wrote Chief Justice John Minton.

Crick was 43, according to the Lexington Herald Leader, and served McLean and Muhlenberg counties.

Clayton Cope, 29

The family of Clayton Cope, a 29-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, confirmed to CNN that he was dead when a tornado hit an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Ill. On Friday night.

His mother, Carla Cope, told CNN that her son was “a very good kid.” He would have turned 30 on December 27, she said.

“He loved going out with his friends,” she said. “He had a big heart, he would do anything for anyone.

Clayton followed several other men from the Cope family into serving in the Navy, his mother said. Her six-year stint included work as an aircraft carrier calibration specialist, she added.

Clayton had worked for Amazon for just over a year as a maintenance mechanic, Carla Cope said. Her father also worked at the facility in the same position.

“If (Clay) hadn’t been there, his father would have been,” she said.

Carla Cope said she last spoke with Clay shortly before the tornado hit. She told him the storm was coming and recalls that he spoke to someone nearby, telling them they had to go make sure the other employees were aware of it as well.

Austin McEwen, 26

Austin McEwen also worked at the Amazon warehouse and was among six employees who were killed there when a tornado destroyed part of the facility.

“Austin was a beautiful soul, loved by everyone who met him.… He was a talented baseball and hockey player. He loved the outdoors and his hunting dogs,” a description said on a GoFundMe page. .

McEwen, of Edwardsville, Ill., “Graduated from Vatterott College with a degree in mechanics,” the Page said.

Other victims at the Amazon warehouse

Madison County Coroner Stephen Nonn released the names of the other people who died to Amazon’s fulfillment center. They were Deandre Morrow, 28, of St. Louis; Kevin Dickey, 62, of Carlyle, Illinois; Etheria Hebb, 34, from Saint-Louis; and Larry Virden, 46, of Collinsville, Illinois.