{"id":43962,"date":"2021-11-01T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T06:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/friends-family-pay-tribute-to-woman-killed-while-working-at-bayfield-service-station\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:16:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:16:34","slug":"friends-family-pay-tribute-to-woman-killed-while-working-at-bayfield-service-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/friends-family-pay-tribute-to-woman-killed-while-working-at-bayfield-service-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends, family pay tribute to woman killed while working at Bayfield service station"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"At
At least three dozen friends, family and community members paid tribute Saturday to Jadah Willmett, 21, who was killed early Aug. 2 while working alone at the Speedway gas station in Bayfield. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Family, friends and community members gathered Saturday in Bayfield to remember Jadah Willmett, 21, the gas station attendant who was killed in the early morning hours Aug. 2 at Speedway.<\/p>\n

Ed and Sonya Willmett, Jadah\u2019s parents, organized the memorial. Jadah\u2019s parents chose the eve of Halloween because Halloween was Jadah\u2019s favorite holiday, Sonya Willmet said.<\/p>\n

The memorial was held on the weekend of Jadah\u2019s favorite holiday to let her spirit know that her memory will never die and that her friends, family and the people she impacted \u201call miss her really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ed
Ed and Sonya Willmett say a few words about their daughter, Jadah Willmett, on Saturday at the Speedway convenience store in Bayfield. Jadah was killed while working alone early Aug. 2 at the service station. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe all miss her,\u201d Sonya Willmett told The Durango Herald<\/em> in an interview. \u201cShe had such a bright spirit and she was so helpful and wonderful to everybody that met her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don Willmett, Jadah\u2019s grandfather, said a prayer before the group, and the attendees all sang \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d afterward.<\/p>\n

About three dozen people attended the memorial. Some left flowers in memory of Jadah. Her father showed up before visitors were expected to arrive to help set up. Friends and family joined him in setting up photos of Jadah.<\/p>\n

Sonya Willmett said her daughter made an impact on everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want that to go away,\u201d Sonya Willmett said. \u201cI want people to remember that she was such a positive, happy influence to whoever she met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonya and Ed Willmett briefly addressed participants and thanked them for taking the time to remember their daughter. Ed Willmett added that others couldn\u2019t make it to the memorial on Saturday, but he said he knows they were there in spirit, in their hearts and in their prayers.<\/p>\n

\"Family,
Family, friends and community members placed flowers and mementos at a memorial for Jadah Willmett, 21, who was killed early Aug. 2 while working alone at the Speedway gas station in Bayfield. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI know for some people they think that stuff like this is kind of trivial,\u201d said Ed Willmett. \u201cBut this means a lot to us. It means a lot to everybody who showed up. We have a long, really long road ahead of us on all points. But knowing that we have support of family and friends, and just the people around us, it makes all the difference in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Family,
Family, friends and community members deliver flowers and share photos Saturday evening at the Speedway convenience store in Bayfield, where Jadah Willmett, 21, was killed early Aug. 2 while working alone at the gas station. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ed Willmett encouraged people to keep adding flowers and other items of their choice to Jadah\u2019s memorial to keep her memory alive and strong. He said he\u2019s made an arrangement with the town of Bayfield to pick up all of the items before it snows.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m gonna bring it all back in the spring, and we\u2019re going to continue to add to it until this is over,\u201d Ed Willmett said.<\/p>\n

\"At
At least three dozen friends, family and community members showed up Saturday evening to pay tribute to Jadah Willmett, 21, who was killed early Aug. 2 while working alone at the Speedway gas station in Bayfield. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sonya Willmett said she and her husband are working hard to have conversations with state Rep. Barbara McLachlan to address the circumstances that led to Jadah Willmett\u2019s death. Jadah was the only employee on duty at the time, and the family has suggested that maybe more than one person should be on duty at gas stations during overnight hours.<\/p>\n

Sonya Willmet said she doesn\u2019t want their experience to befall anyone else.<\/p>\n

Fiona Rodebaugh attended the memorial to remember her friend Jadah and support the Willmett\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just appreciate everyone coming out and showing their love for her,\u201d Rodebaugh said. \u201cI hate that we have to do this, but I\u2019m so glad that we\u2019re coming together as a community. She deserved people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ed
Ed and Sonya Willmett say a few words about their daughter, Jadah Willmett, on Saturday at the Speedway convenience store in Bayfield. Jadah was killed while working alone early Aug. 2 at the service station. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe want to make sure to acknowledge you guys and let you know how much she loved you all,\u201d Sonya Willmett told everyone who came out to support her family.<\/p>\n

\"Ed
Ed Willmett receives a hug as family and friends pay tribute Saturday to Jadah Willmett, who was killed early Aug. 2 while working alone at the Speedway convenience store in Bayfield. Willmett was Jadah\u2019s father. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jadah Willmett was stabbed to death about 1:31 a.m. inside the Speedway convenience store at 650 S. Buck Highway. A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with her death.<\/p>\n

According to an obituary<\/a>, Willmett was born in Denver but grew up in Durango and attended the Durango school system. She was active in the choir, played the guitar and worked different service-related jobs.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Willmett, 21, was the only person on duty early Aug. 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,168,255,28,1231],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-crime","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines","tag-pine-river-times"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85913,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43962\/revisions\/85913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43962"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}