Elise Veronica KREJCI
Elise Veronica KREJCI
( late of Shellharbour, NSW )
New South Wales Police Force
Regd. # 41513
Commenced Training at Goulburn Police Academy on Monday 2 May 2005? with Class # ???
Rank: Probationary Constable – appointed ? ? ?
Constable – appointed ? ? ?
Stations: Wollongong – Death
Service: From ? 2005 to 20 April 2008 = 3 years Service
Awards: ?
Born: Wednesday 26 May 1976
Died on: Sunday 20 April 2008
Cause: Injuries received in a motor vehicle accident – Off Duty
Event location: Picton Rd, Cataract Dam
Age: 31 years, 10 months, 25 days
Funeral date: Tuesday 29 April 2008
Funeral location: St Agatha’s Church, Pennant Hills, at 11am on Tuesday
Buried at: North Rocks Cemetery, North Rocks Rd, North Rocks, NSW ( with her Mother – Ann )
Grave location: Sect. B, Row 8, Grave 2
GPS -33.768712, 151.040709
ELISE is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance * NOT JOB RELATED
Grave location:
Herald Sun 22 April 2008
Elise couldn’t wait to tell her news to police mates
WITH a new engagement ring worn proudly on her finger, Elise Krejci could not wait to return to work to share the news with her police colleagues.
After accepting a romantic Gold Coast proposal from boyfriend and workmate Brett Wright on Saturday, the 31-year-old Wollongong constable was rostered back on duty at 6.30am yesterday.
But Constable Krejci did not make it back to work to share her happy news as she was killed in a road crash on Sunday.
And the popular officer’s engagement ring was locked in a safe at Wollongong police station, removed from her finger by a numbed colleague.
Constable Krejci was returning home from a week-long holiday with Senior-Constable Wright and his three children – aged seven, 10, and 13 – when the Holden Commodore she was driving slammed head-on into a Ford Fiesta at Cataract in Sydney’s southwestern outskirts, killing her instantly.
As Sen-Constable Wright, 36, remained in a serious condition with spinal injuries at Wollongong Hospital, family and colleagues yesterday spoke of the cruel twist of fate that robbed of a life together. Stephen Krejci told The Daily Telegraph how his younger sister had phoned home overjoyed at her engagement after Sen-Constable Wright’s proposal on Saturday.
The couple had been together for about a year and Constable Krejci was excited about becoming a stepmother.
“She was so happy about it (the engagement). Everyone was very happy,” Mr Krejci, 38, said.
“They were planning on building a house in Wollongong. They had bought the land and had it all planned out. They had everything to look forward to.
“It’s just a tragedy. She was such a warm, friendly person. We’re all a bit numb.”
Mr Krejci said his sister, who would have turned 32 on June 3, joined the police about four years ago. She was following in the footsteps of her younger sister Anna, who worked at Wollongong police as a school liaison officer.
She was working in the same 20-officer general duties team as Sen-Constable Wright and cherished being close to her sister – two girls in a family of five brothers.
“She transferred to Wollongong only a few years ago to be close to her family and friends,” Mr Krejci said.
“That’s where she met Brett. They’d been together about a year. I just hope that he can recover.”
Colleagues, including officers who attended the crash site on Picton Rd, near Cataract dam, remained in shock with a chaplain and psychologist offering counselling.
Wollongong crime manager Inspector Mark Lavers said Constable Krejci “was such a lovely girl. We have 240 people here and a lot of them will be upset.”
Police believe that the crash occurred after Constable Krejci’s Holden Commodore hit a patch of water and aquaplaned into the Ford Fiesta in heavy weather.
Sen-Constable Wright’s three children escaped the crash unhurt.
The driver of the Ford, a 23-year-old Lurnea man, was flown to Liverpool Hospital with hip, leg and facial injuries.
A female passenger in that car was taken to St George Hospital in a stable condition.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/policewomans-future-stolen/story-e6frf7jo-1111116125885
The Age 21 April 2008
Just engaged Elise dies in car smash
Photo: David Tease and Syliva Liber
April 21, 2008 – 9:34AM
A policewoman who yesterday died in a traffic crash that seriously injured her partner, a fellow officer, became engaged to be married two days ago, their commanding officer has revealed.
Constable Elise Krejci, 31, and Senior-Constable Brett Wright, both attached to Wollongong local area command, were travelling along Picton Road at Cataract at about 1pm yesterday when their Holden Commodore collided with a Ford Fiesta.
Constable Wright’s three children were in the back of the car and suffered minor injuries.
Constable Wright remains in a serious but stable condition in Liverpool Hospital with a fractured hip and spine and internal bleeding.
Wollongong Inspector Mark Lavers said the officers had made plans to get married.
“I just found out they were engaged two days ago,” he said.
Inspector Lavers said Wollongong highway patrol officers who did not work with the pair were first on the scene.
Command of the crash scene was transferred to Illawarra police and crash investigation officers as soon as possible to reduce the trauma for officers who had worked with the police couple.
Wollongong officers have received counselling.
“We have had psychologists and police chaplains at the station,” Inspector Lavers said.
He said the deceased officer, from Shellharbour, was very popular.
“She’s a lovely girl and a good officer,” Inspector Lavers said. “We never had to chase her up for her work. She was well respected by her peers and senior management.”
Constable Krejci was first stationed at Wollongong in December 2005,
Police said the 23-year-old driver of the other car, a Ford Fiesta with L-plates, suffered hip, leg and facial injuries, and was taken to Liverpool Hospital in a stable condition. His female passenger was taken to St George Hospital.
The Illawarra Mercury today quoted the officers’ team leader, Inspector Brian Wyver, saying each of the five teams at Wollongong Police were made up of 20 officers and camaraderie in the teams was strong.
“She has been in the police for about two years and she was well-liked and it was a close team,” he said. “Brett was her fiancé and he is on that team as well . . . it’s just a sad day.
“Morale is always good and this is where they really get behind each other.
“It’s a sad day and they are dealing with it in their own way.”
Inspector Wyver said Constable Krejci enjoyed bush walking with Constable Wright and others in the team.
He said they both had family in the Wollongong area and that Constable Krejci’s sister, Anna, was a school liaison officer with Wollongong Police.
The Daily Telegraph 25 April 2008
We had that perfect love, says killed cop’s fiancé; Elise Krejci
HE calls her his soulmate and just 10 days ago Brett Wright was ecstatic when a smitten Elise Krejci agreed to become his wife.
The Wollongong policeman was yesterday lying in hospital with a broken back and his “perfect” woman’s engagement ring hanging from his neck as he bravely prepared a eulogy for the love he cruelly lost in a road crash.
First report: Policewoman killed after engagement
Six days after Constable Krejci was killed as the couple returned from a family holiday, Senior-Constable Wright spoke for the first time about the “wife” he planned to spend his life with.
“We had that absolute perfect, beautiful, wonderful, true love. We were true soulmates,” the 36-year-old told The Daily Telegraph from his Wollongong hospital bed.
“Elise was the perfect partner in every way. She lived to please me and I lived to please her and that’s what made us happiest. We spent virtually every moment together from the time we got together until Sunday.
“Every day was perfect. I’m so fortunate to have had my time with her.”
The couple met when Constable Krejci moved to Wollongong two years ago. They had a fairytale romance, moving in together two days after their first kiss during a holiday with colleagues last September.
When Sen-Constable Wright gave his 31-year-old love a commitment ring a month later, she immediately placed it on her wedding finger and began calling him her husband.
That destiny was to be fulfilled, with the couple already booking their church and reception, before Sen-Constable Wright proposed 10 days ago.
Yesterday, the grieving officer spoke of memories of their final days and plans for children, before their car slammed head-on into another vehicle, driven by a learner driver at Cataract, just 20 minutes from their Wollongong home.
Choking back tears, Sen-Constable Wright said he was feeding his fiancee a mandarin when the car hit water on Picton Rd and collided with oncoming traffic.
He passed out for several minutes before waking to find Constable Krejci dead and his children, Sarah, 13, Renee, 10, and Matthew, 7, crying in shock.
“I just remember the car started to aquaplane and I could see us sliding towards the other car and thinking ‘this is not good’, then I think I passed out and the next thing I woke up and the car was on its side,” he said.
“It happened so fast, one minute we were laughing and sharing a mandarin and then . . .”
The policeman, who will deliver a eulogy from a stretcher at Constable Krejci’s funeral on Tuesday, broke down as he showed photographs of their engagement and final holiday together.
The couple had driven to the Gold Coast with Sen-Constable Wright’s children, spending a day at Movie World and soaking up the sun, before going to Port Douglas on April 15, where the wedding proposal occurred.
“It was just the most perfect day. I’m just glad we were given that last holiday with the family,” he said.
“We were brought safely all the way back to Wollongong and when we were back she was taken.
“But I believe she was taken because there’s another purpose for her. She’s got other things to do now and I believe I was left behind because I’ve still got the kids to look after.
“When my time is finished I know that she’ll be up there waiting for me. She’ll probably say something along the lines of: ‘What took you so long?’
“That’s what I believe. To believe anything else would be too painful.”
Sen-Constable Wright said, although his back and hip were broken, his spinal cord was not damaged and he was determined to return to work at Wollongong, where a plaque will be erected to commemorate Constable Krejci. He also vowed to build their dream home on the block of land in Wollongong’s south.
“I’ll do everything the way we planned, I know she’ll be looking down.”
A Requiem Mass will be held for Constable Krejci at St Agatha’s Church, Pennant Hills, at 11am on Tuesday, followed by a burial service at The North Rocks Cemetery.
The Daily Telegraph 30 April 2008
On stretcher Brett Wright lays true love Elise to rest
WHAT began as the hardest journey Brett Wright would ever make ended, fittingly, in an emotional send-off for Elise Krejci, his “perfect, beautiful, wonderful, true love”.
The Wollongong policeman and father-of-three travelled by ambulance from Wollongong Hospital to St Agatha’s Catholic Church in Pennant Hills yesterday, where he joined family and friends at his fiancee’s funeral.
Speaking from a hospital bed and supported by emergency services personnel, Senior Constable Wright spoke for almost 20 minutes about his love for Constable Krejci, his “soulmate”.
He is still recovering from injuries to his spine, lung and ribs, which he sustained in the accident that killed Constable Krejci, 31, on April 20.
The couple was returning from a family holiday on the Gold Coast with his three children when the Holden Commodore she was driving collided with a Ford Fiesta on a wet and slippery Picton Rd.
She had accepted his proposal of marriage a day earlier and couldn’t wait to return to work to share the news with colleagues and friends.
Yesterday, the 200-strong crowd also heard a series of other tributes from a number of Constable Krejci’s friends and relatives, including her sister Anna, brother Paul and 13-year-old step-daughter Sarah.
Her duty officer, Detective Inspector Brian Wyver, said she had become an integral and essential part of his team, despite having being stationed in Wollongong for only a relatively short time.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, who attended the funeral, said Constable Krejci’s family had supported each other through the death of her mother Elaine, who succumbed to ovarian cancer in 1999.
Their “strength and stoicism” was again evident yesterday, he said.
“All in all, it was one of the tearier and more emotional funerals I’ve been to but when you lose one of your own, it becomes doubly sad,” he said.
“Elise was a beautiful girl – very stunning in appearance, well-travelled, well-educated and very respected. She was a teacher and a nurse, and then she joined us.”
Mr Scipione said he had been struck by the courage of Constable Krejci’s father Ernie. “The tragedy, when you reflect upon what’s happened here is that no parent should ever have to bury one of their children – the time is not right,” he said.
“She has left this Earth far too early, at 31, and certainly we’re much poorer, as an organisation, for having lost her but at least we knew her and in terms of policing, she was an important part of the landscape wherever she worked.”
