Surviving family of jet crash victims get over $485k for Christmas

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Donors have given a huge Christmas gift to the surviving relatives of a Maryland mother and her two young sons who were killed when a jet crashed into their home earlier this month.

Television station WRC-TV reports a friend collected between 500 and 600 gifts and gift cards totaling $12,000 to $15,000 for the family of Marie Gemmell. Gemmell was killed along with her 3-year-old and 1-month-old on Dec. 8 when a business jet crashed into a neighborhood near an airport in suburban Washington. Three men aboard the jet also died.

An online fundraiser for the family on the site gofundme.com, meanwhile, has topped more than $485,000.

Marie Gemmell’s husband, Ken Gemmell, and their school-aged daughter, Arabelle, weren’t home at the time of the crash.