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Driver, 21, faces multiple charges in deadly Loxahatchee crash

Posted at 6:27 AM, Aug 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-23 04:35:17-04

Friends and family of a Palm Beach County deputy are in mourning after the deputy's son was killed this week by a suspected drunk driver who left the scene.

Kory Laux says it's tough to stop crying. He is missing his brother Jason who died in the wreck early Monday morning.  

"Non-stop for all of us, the community, my family, everybody. "He was a wonderful, caring person. Everybody loved him, he was never angry. Anybody could walk up to him and he was always a happy person," Laux said.

Investigators have determined Jason Laux was traveling north on Seminole Pratt Whitney Road when he was rear-ended by Jacob Gordon.

After the crash, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Gordon, who was driving drunk, ran from the crash. He was found a few blocks away hiding under someone's car.

Gordon was in court Tuesday to face DUI manslaughter charges.

It was little comfort for the Laux family.  

"I can't even describe the feeling of how it makes me and the whole family feel. No words can describe the pain," sister Alyssa Laux said. 

But through the pain, she does remember the good times. "His corny jokes, and how no matter what he wanted to make you smile."

"He can't be replaced or compared to," Kory added.

Mary Wanczak showed the cross she found in Jason Laux's car. She gave it to him for his birthday two years ago. Now she's keeping it close to her heart.  "We found it in the car yesterday."

"He was such a great person. Everyone loved him," friend Chelse Wanczak said.
Friends say they will miss him.

"It's devastating. He was like my brother. I tutored him when he was a kid," Danielle Beckemeyer said.

If Gordon bonds out of jail, he will remain on house arrest.

Jason Laux's funeral is Saturday at 8 p.m. at Palms West Funeral Home in Royal Palm Beach.