Donations Pour in for New Year's Day Crash Victim's Funeral

SONOMA COUNTY, CA -- Friends and family of an 18-year-old Santa Rosa woman killed when she was a passenger in a suspected DUI crash on New Year's Day hope to raise as much as $5,000 online to help pay for her funeral.

Over $1,600 to cover the funeral expenses has been donated so far.

Michajla Bailey Kostecka was pronounced dead at the scene of the solo crash in Santa Rosa at around 11 p.m.
The silver Chevrolet Cavalier had crashed into a tree and come to a rest on the sidewalk of Mountain Hawk Drive at Branch Owl Place, police said.

As of the morning of Jan. 3, a total people have donated $1,675 toward the $5,000 that organizers hope to raise for the funeral.

The GoFundMe page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/rest-easy-michajla.

"She went to parties, had adventures, was always doing something new. She was a wild child. It was never boring with her," her sister-in-law, Yvonne Falk Bailey of Oakland, wrote.

The 19-year-old driver, Santa Rosa resident Rebecca Iris Guillory, was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol while causing great bodily injury, police said.

After being treated at the hospital for minor injuries, Guillory was booked into Sonoma County Jail and will make her first court appearance at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 4. She's being held on $100,000 bail.

Bay City News contributed to this report/Image courtesy of Yvonne Falk Bailey