Young Girl Killed In Crash At Mile High Comics Howdy, I apologize in advance to those of you who read my national newsletter, as most of today's message is taken directly from that mailing. Given that many fans who live in the Denver area have seen me on local TV news over the last couple of days, I thought it important to be sure that the message was conveyed about what happened at our Jason St. Mega-Store over this past weekend: I am in a very somber mood today, as I have spent the past 24 hours trying to somehow rationalize the death of a beautiful young girl. All we know right now is that 17 year-old Karen Lopez drove on Saturday evening about 20 miles from her home in Aurora, Colorado, to the vicinity of our 46th and Jason St. Mega-Store, in central Denver. At 2 AM on Sunday morning, she crashed her little sedan into two huge steel posts just outside our loading dock at extremely high speed, disintegrating the front of her car. She died instantly. Karen Lopez What this beautiful young girl was doing in our deserted warehouse district at 2 AM is unknown at this time, and may never be discovered. We also have no clue as to why she hit our building, as we have a very bright street light right outside our docks. I did meet (very briefly) with her family last evening, but they were in such a state of shock and grief that I do not want to intrude beyond asking them for her first name, and requesting of them to bring us a photo of Karen to accompany the flowers that I purchased for her yesterday morning. They did tell me that she had not told them anything about coming to west Denver, but that she was in the company of a young man for at least part of the evening. They were going to try to contact him to see if he could give them an idea of what might have happened. Photo from Channel 7 News While we wait for more information to be released by the police, we have to respectfully clean up the accident scene, which unfortunately utterly destroyed our primary loading dock door. Until we can get it repaired, we will have to haul all of our boxes and other shipments in and out of the Mega-Store by hand. That inconvenience pales by comparison with our having to actually clean the doors and walls, however, which is a dreadfully traumatizing experience. Speaking as the father of four grown daughters whom I cherish beyond all words, I can assure you that it is impossible for me to not empathize and grieve along with Karen's family. Suffice it to say, this has been a very tough couple of days. Small Shrine at Jason St Mega Store So you know, our plan to help us all heal is for us to host a small in-store auction of comics and toys on Saturday, April 11th, at Jason St. with 100% of the proceeds going to help her family to cover Karen's burial expenses. Donations of comics and toys for the auction will be accepted at the Jason St. Mega-Store, and also by mail. Jeff will be handling the individual donations of comics and toys at the Jason St. Mega-Store, and will be putting all donated items out on tables for advance viewing. We will be accepting donations of comics-related items right up to the day of Karen's auction, as we are anticipating having upwards of 300 collectibles up for bid. If you could also possibly attend Karen's benefit auction as a bidder, we would also appreciate your participation very much. Regardless of the number of items that wind up being privately donated, we will select enough cool collectibles from our own Mile High Comics comics and toy inventories to assure that this benefit event will make a significant contribution toward covering Karen's funeral costs. While this young girl was a complete stranger to us, her tragic passing on our doorstep has deeply affected everyone who works here at Jason St.. Helping her family in this time of unimaginable tragedy is our pathway of healing. Please help us, if you can. Sincerely, Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. March 31, 2015 Current Newsletter