Heidi Durfey Memorial Set for Northern California Town

A memorial service for La Mesa’s Heidi Durfey, the 23-year-old mother of three who died of injuries suffered in a tragic SUV accident May 5, is planned Thursday in the Northern California town of Lodi, according to a local newspaper.

The website of the Lodi News said Durfey was born Aug. 31, 1987, in Honolulu and used to live in Woodbridge—an unincorporated town next to Lodi in San Joaquin County.

Described as a homemaker, Durfey will be remembered at memorial services at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Chapel of Flowers at Cherokee Memorial Park, Highway 99 and East Harney Lane, Lodi, said the unbylined article.

Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday (today) at Cherokee Memorial Funeral Home, 831 E. Industrial Way in Lodi, the paper said.

According to the report, Heidi N. Durfey, is “survived by her husband, J. Durfey, of San Diego; daughters, Olivia and Ava Durfey; son, Darren Durfey; parents, Darren and Valerie Reed, of Woodbridge; sisters, Heather Mullins, of Dayton, Ore., and Holly Payne, of Woodbridge, Va.; grandparents, Conrad and Dolores Kessell, of Lodi; and grandmother, Grayce Reed of Elk Grove.”

Cherokee Memorial Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements, the report said.

La Mesa police were investigating the accident in which Durfey’s GMC Yukon XL rolled backward down a 60-foot embankment, with her young children strapped in the back seat, and she was found trapped under its front wheels.

Rescued by a Heartland Fire and Rescue Department crew with the help of neighbors, who provided a jack, Durfey was alive when she was taken by ambulance to Sharp Memorial Hospital in Kearny Mesa before 10 a.m.

But she was pronounced dead about 12:35 p.m. in a tragedy that brought front-page news coverage in San Diego and was carried on national news wires, including UPI and The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, La Mesa police said the Yukon had not yet been fully inspected, “so [it’s] unknown at this time if there were any mechanical issues,” police Lt. Dan Willis said.   “Investigation will likely take at least a few more weeks.”