Father remembers young Hanceville family killed in Monday crash

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October 4, 2012

Father remembers young Hanceville family killed in Monday crash

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times The Cullman Times Thu Oct 04, 2012, 09:03 AM CDT

CULLMAN — The Hanceville family that died together Monday after being struck by robbery suspects in a Jefferson County police chase was young. The father, Hanceville High School graduate Ryan Culwell, was 20 years old. Amber Verus, the mother, attended Fairview. She was 23. The couple was learning how to raise their new daughter, 10 month-old Rogue Marie.

“He was just figuring out how to be a dad,” said Max Culwell, Ryan’s father, Wednesday afternoon. “I think he was proud to [be a dad], but he was so young. They were a normal young couple, just trying to learn as they go.”

The Culwell family has called Hanceville home for three generations. Ryan and Amber looked to carry that tradition forward, settling into a rhythm of life at their home near Wallace State Community College. He had a job as a machine operator at Rehau; she often would bring Rogue over to Max’s house to pass the time, waiting for Ryan to return home from work.

“They’ve been together for at least three years,” Max said. “She wouldn’t always want to be at home alone at night, with the baby, and she would come over here and stay for hours. She’d do that three or four times a week; she was here just about every day this weekend. Monday morning, she had an interview at Rehau, where Ryan and Alex [Ryan’s 18 year-old brother] both work. I kept the baby then.”

Max said he didn’t know what brought the couple and their child to Birmingham Monday evening, but guessed it might have owed something to Ryan’s love of cars.

“With him, there was no telling,” said Max with a rueful laugh. “They had been working on their car, and boy, he loved that kind of stuff. He’s always traded cars; car parts. If he could find somebody who could upgrade his speakers and could get a good deal for it, he’d always be looking to do a little horse trading. He didn’t go for sports much in school; he just always had his eye out for cars.

“Actually, he wanted to work on cars for a living, but I think he figured out that it’s extremely hard to do it for a living. So when he got a chance to work at the plant, he jumped at the job. He’d been at Rehau for probably two years.”

By his father’s own assessment, Ryan was just a normal kid. So was Amber — together, just two young people who, like hundreds of young people every year, get out of high school and decide to put down roots close to home. That’s what makes their tragedy so resonant in a small community like Hanceville, where the lives of so many follow a similar path.

“Most of our kids are just basically, at heart, good kids,” said Hanceville High School principal Tracy Hubbert. “They may not be involved in sports; in this or that, but they graduate and they go on to very successful and very productive lives.

“I was not the principal when this young man attended school here, but our teachers know the family well, and — especially because the circumstances were so tragic — it affects our ‘family’ as a community. There have been some students close to the families here who have been very upset by this tragedy, and they’ve needed to be away from school, because of that connection. We’ve worked with them on that. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who’s been touched by this tragedy.”

A fund has been established at Traditions Bank to help the family with burial expenses. Donations can be made at any of the bank’s six branch locations.

* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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Father remembers young Hanceville family killed in Monday crash

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