An online fundraiser has been started to help pay for services for West Aurora graduate Jared Peters, who died Monday of a gunshot wound.
Services, scheduled for Sunday at Aurora’s Healy Chapel, are to include visitation from noon to 4 p.m., followed by a celebration of life, according to an obituary published on the chapel’s website.
Peters, born in July 1998, is survived by his mother, Lynette S. Wegman; brother, Keith Murray; grandparents Terry Wegman and Bonnie Wegman; aunt Jennifer (Chris) Showerman; and cousins Ryan Showerman, Kyle Showerman and Sophia Walls, according to the obituary.
Family friend Tracey Sturdivant, who said she has been friends with Peters’ mother since the sixth grade and attended Peters’ first birthday party, created a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with services and other related expenses. Thursday afternoon, the account had surpassed $13,000 of its $15,000 goal, with more than 180 donations since it was created Monday.
The funds will be used to offset any costs, lost wages and funeral and memorial expenses incurred during what is a tragic time for the family, according to the fundraiser’s description.
“I have not lost a child and I hope I never do, but I’m not sure many of us would be prepared to lose a child so young,” reads the fundraiser’s description. “I ask that whatever you can give no matter how big or small it would be greatly appreciated.”
On the phone Thursday, Sturdivant said she knew that as a single parent, Peters’ mom, who works in the cosmetology industry, would have to take time off work as a result of her son’s death.
“As somebody who loves and cares about her, I wanted to do something proactive,” Sturdivant said.
Sturdivant described Peters as a young man who would do anything for anybody, a good kid who loved his family greatly. Since graduating from West Aurora High School in May, he had been working odd jobs and helping his mom around the house while he was in the process of applying to Waubonsee Community College, Sturdivant said. Peters was a great help to his mom and family, always making sure the yard was taken care of, with an ability to fix anything from the TV to the fence, she said.
“Nobody expected this to happen,” Sturdivant said. “This young man was a loving, caring family person… at the end of the day people matter. Things don’t matter, people matter, and we really need to focus on what’s important.”
Peters, of the 700 block of Fordham Avenue, Aurora, was pronounced dead at the scene Monday at a home on the 600 block of South Gladstone in unincorporated Aurora Township. Preliminary autopsy results released Wednesday by the Kane County Coroner’s Office stated that his death was caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, but the Kane County Sheriff’s Office said the case remains an active death investigation.
Services Sunday are open to the public, Sturdivant said. Healy Chapel is at 332 W. Downer Place in Aurora.
To donate: https://www.gofundme.com/wtqsnkw-expenses
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