Family remembers siblings killed 10 weeks apart

By JAKE MUONIO
Published: 07.17.08

In the early morning hours of June 26, Gary and Jean Landrum received the telephone call every parent fears.

A doctor was on the line, summoning the couple to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital. Their oldest son, Adam Landrum, had been struck and killed by a drunk driver.

Unbelievably, the call marked the second time in 10 weeks the Landrum household had received that type of devastating news.

Jaclyn Landrum, Adam’s sister, was killed in an April 17 auto accident. Like Adam, Jaclyn’s accident, along the same stretch of northbound Interstate 45, was the fault of another driver.

“Some people have said it’s a parents worst nightmare,” Gary Landrum said of losing two of his three children. “This is past the nightmare stage.”

Adam, 26, had been traveling northbound on the I-45 feeder approaching Raypine Drive, riding his 1994 Honda motorcycle at about 1 a.m. when a 2001 Chevy Silverado driven by Houston resident Miguel Laynes Rojas pulled out and struck him, Texas Department of Public Safety officials said.He was taken to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 1:45 a.m. Adam’s helmet was found strapped on the back of his motorcycle.

Rojas, 33, was arrested for second-degree felony intoxicated manslaughter.

A field sobriety test showed a blood alcohol level about twice the legal limit, DPS officials said. He is also being detained on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold.

Jaclyn, a 17-year-old Oak Ridge High School junior, also was traveling north on the Interstate 45 feeder road when she died. A semi truck made a right turn in front of her from a lane to her left. Her vehicle struck the back corner of the cab.

The deaths have left Patrick Landrum, the couple’s remaining child, in a daze. He worries that if he ever dies his parents will be childless.

“He said he’s going to get a tank to drive in now,” Jean said.

Tank or not, both Gary and Patrick plan to sell their motorcycles as a result of the loss of Adam. For 24-year-old Patrick, that means giving up something he’s been doing for half his life.

The Landrum family members have turned to the Bible and their church family at Suburban Wood Baptist Church in Humble for support.

“I know I’ll see him again, and Jackie too,” Patrick said. “If I didn’t have that faith I don’t know what I’d do.”

The death of Jaclyn brought the already close family even closer.

Patrick returned home from college and was able to share most of the next 10 weeks with Adam. The two even spent a week at the church’s summer camp in counselor-like roles.

“They’re happy now,” Jean said of her children. “They did their job here and God wanted them home.”

Jean feels she saw something symbolic at the scene of Adam’s death.

“All his life, Adam wore hearing aids and he was always losing them,” Jean Landrum said. “I would always search until I found them.”

Jean said once when Adam, still just a little kid, tired of wearing the aid while riding in the car, he threw it out the window. Frantic, Jean stopped, searching inside and out. The device was eventually found under Jean’s seat, where the wind rushing in through the open car window had blown it back in.

Another time Adam lost his hearing aid while on the football field practicing with his teammates at Oak Ridge High School. He called home after practice with the bad news. The entire team had spent an hour on their hands and knees, searching with no luck. Jean drove to the field, took three steps onto it and looked down. There, about a foot from her toe, was the hearing aid.

As Jean stopped June 27 to measure up the scene of the accident that claimed her son’s life, she found Adam’s hearing aid one last time.

It had been crushed this time.“I’ve always found them. I guess it was meant that I’d find this one in the ditch,” Jean said.A virtual memorial has been set up for Adam at www.mem.com/Story.aspx?ID=2509028.

Contributions in Adam’s memory may be made to the Adam Grant Landrum Memorial Fund at Woodforest National Bank.

They can be mailed to 3060 College Park Drive, The Woodlands, TX 77384, Account # 1302322704.The fund will be used to pay for expenses related to the funeral for Adam, who did not have insurance, Jean said.Reporter Kassia Micek contributed to this article.