TOP STORY OF 2008: Drunk driver kills three members of Dwight family

Amanda Jahn, 27, and her two children, Ryan and Kaitlyn, were killed Nov. 6, 2008, when a drunk driver ran the stop sign and struck the family’s vehicle. (Herald File Photo)

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A Ransom woman remains in the Grundy County Jail today in connection with the Nov. 6 traffic accident that killed three members of a Dwight family. Ann Marie Getz, 43, is facing eight counts of aggravated driving under the influence in the incident on Illinois 47, just south of Mazon. Prosecutors say Getz, who was headed west on Gardner Road, ran the stop sign at the intersection with Illinois 47, and struck the southbound car driven by Amanda Jahn, 27, of Dwight. Jahn, formerly of Morris, and her two children, 3-year-old Ryan Jahn, and 11-month old Kaitlyn Jahn, died in the incident. The husband and father, Joshua Jahn, was not with the family at the time. Getz was a patient under guard at Morris Hospital for six days following the crash, then transported to the Grundy County Jail on a bond of $1 million. “Unbelievable, senseless, tragic,” Grundy County Sheriff Terry Marketti noted of the accident, witnessed by a number of people who said they saw Getz disobey the stop sign at about 8 p.m. that evening. Grundy County Coroner John Callahan pronounced the mother dead at the scene of the collision. The children were transported to Morris Hospital, where they were pronounced dead 90 minutes later. Prosecutors say Getz has two previous DUI convictions, and could serve up to 28 years in prison if convicted in the Jahn case.