'Selfless' Parents and 'Amazing' 16-Year-Old Died Together in D.C. Plane Crash, Friend Says (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

From left: Stephanie, Cory and Roger Haynos.Photo:GoFundMe

GoFundMe

Virginia couple Stephanie and Roger Haynos and their 16-year-old son, Cory, spent their final days together, traveling to Kansas so the talented young skater couldparticipate in a prestigious development campfor up-and-coming athletes.

Then, on their way back home, their plane collided with an Army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., just as they were preparing to land. All three died.

Family friend Marianne Crooch tells PEOPLE she first head aboutthe historic D.C. plane crashhours later on the morning news.

“My heart dropped because I knew they were coming home on that Wednesday,” she says.

“So I immediately texted Stephanie,” Crooch continues, “and I called her, and she usually picks up. And I waited, waited, waited."

Ultimately, she learned that was their plane from a friend who worked with Roger’s best friend, Jimmy, who was at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that night to pick the family up.

The couple leaves behind a 19-year-old daughter, who was not on the flight. AGoFundMe to support herhas raised more than $75,000.

Crooch, 62, says that because Stephanie and Roger both worked, it was rare that they were able to travel and watch their son skate together.

She says: “99% of the time … one of them would go and take Cory and the other one would stay behind," adding that this trip to Kansas was “the first time that I can remember in years that both of them went at the same time.”

“They were very excited,” Crooch says. “[Stephanie] was talking about his triple axel and we talked about him going to the Olympics, and there was a lot more road, just a lot more hard work that was going to have to be done.”

Crooch, who now lives in North Carolina, and Stephanie both worked in the IT department at Fairfax County Public Schools.

After her retirement last year, Stephanie then began working as a substitute teacher for the same school district — which she planned to continue doing, according to Crooch, until Cory graduated.

“No matter who you ask, Stephanie lit up the room,” Crooch says. “She was just a shining light, Every time you got off the phone with her, she always said either ‘Love ya’ or ‘Love you.’ She had a heart of gold.”

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Stephanie Haynos and Roger Haynos.Stephanie Branton Haynos/Facebook

Stephanie Branton Haynos/Facebook

As for the couple’s 16-year-old son, Crooch says that Cory was a happy child and a “hard worker.”

“He was so disciplined. I mean, getting up and practicing it, leaving the house at 4:30 in the morning every morning, six days a week was just … he just had this focus that this is what he wanted to do,” she says.

And the one time that Crooch saw him on the ice, she was blown away.

“He was just amazing,” she recalls. “He could do anything. I’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s really good.’ And Stephanie knew all of the names of the moves, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know, a triple axel from whatever.’ But she would explain everything as he was skating.”

In a separate tribute, U.S. Figure Skating said that Cory was “a skater with limitless potential.”

On his last day at the training camp in Wichita, “Cory landed a clean triple Axel – a feat he had been working toward for month,” U.S. Figure Skating said.

Cory “dreamed to one day qualify” for the national championships.

Stephanie served on the board of the Skating Club of Northern Virginia — and was the kind of mom who did everything she could to help make her son’s skating dreams come true.

For instance, Crooch says that Stephanie had once been pursuing a doctorate, which she eventually dropped to focus on her kids.

“Cory said he wanted to do [skating] because his sister was doing it, it became so time consuming,” says Crooch. “She dropped out of her doctorate program to focus fully on both of them and making sure they could get to the rink every morning and every afternoon.”

As for how they should be remembered, Crooch describes the couple as “selfless,” “loving” and “giving.”

“They were always giving of themselves,” she adds. “They were there for other people and put themselves second.”

source: people.com