'It was his birthday': Family mourns man killed in crash near Beiseker

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A family is mourning the loss of a young man celebrating his birthday the same day he was killed in a two-car crash near Beiseker on Thursday.

Colby Sackett was driving to his family home in rural Beiseker on his 18th birthday, his grandfather, Glenn Sackett, said Saturday, when he was involved in the deadly collision on Highway 9 between range roads 251 and 253.

“It was his birthday — he was coming home from boarding school and was almost home,” Sackett said from Colorado, where Colby and his family would often visit.

“It’s a real gut-puncher. What somebody said is Colby is the kind of person the world needs more of, and that’s why it’s so tragic he’s gone.”

Sackett said Colby’s father visited the scene of the accident, not knowing his son had been involved in the collision.

“We found out he was missing while we were in Mexico for a long weekend,” Sackett said.

“Scott (Colby’s father) told us he had been to the accident scene but didn’t know for sure what had happened except that the officer said ‘I don’t think anybody could survive the accident.’

“We didn’t have confirmation whether he was alive or not, but (we had) suspicion he wasn’t.”

Sackett said his grandson was in Grade 12 at Parkview Adventist Academy in Lacombe and had recently been accepted to attend school near Lethbridge to become a police officer.

It was something Sackett said caught the family off guard, given nobody else in the family was in law enforcement.

“It was a surprise to us,” he said.

“He’s the kid who always had a serious look on his face, even when he was a baby. He could smile and he could laugh . . . but he typically would have a little wrinkle in his forehead and be thinking about things and studying things.”

Colby and his brother, Jaxon, shared many times together playing music and creating videos, Sackett said.

“(They were) almost like twins. (Colby) played guitar and his brother played ukulele and they led worship music together,” he said.

“They also co-filmed and edited videos. They did fun stuff . . . but also sometimes adventures with drones and things of their adventures on the creek canoeing.”

Messages poured in on social media, mourning Colby’s death.

“Loved always, and gone too soon,” Kalmani Huether wrote on Facebook. “Colby Sackett was always a positive soul to be around, never a dull moment.”

“This is just insane,” Eulaine Nosisa Ndhlovu wrote on Facebook. “(I) worked with him for a while so I know how sweet and genuine he was. I can’t imagine how much of a loss this is for everyone affected.”

Counsellors, chaplains and pastors have been made available to staff and students of Colby’s school, a statement posted on the school’s Facebook page read.

Postmedia hasn’t been able to identify the driver of the other vehicle, who was also killed in the crash. | @zjlaing