PLAIN TWP. − Six-year-old Ellie Workman was set to graduate the morning of June 1 from Eastgate School, a preschool in Louisville that serves kids with developmental disabilities.
She with her roughly 30 classmates had rehearsed the ceremony twice. She had walked up to the front of the room without hesitation to pick up her diploma, said Tammy Maney, the early childhood director at Eastgate.
It was a sign that Ellie had progressed significantly in overcoming the challenges of autism. Two years ago, Ellie would have refused to get out of her chair and walk by herself to the front of the room, she said.
On the evening of May 29, Maney got a phone call from an Eastgate employee watching the news on TV. A fire on Cathy Drive NE in Plain Township had killed a child.
The employee feared based on the information released that it was an Eastgate student. Maney looked up the address and realized it was Ellie’s house.
Although investigators haven’t released the names of those injured or killed, a text message from Ellie’s mother confirmed that firefighters had pulled Ellie and her 4-year-old sister, Vivianne Butterbaugh, also an Eastgate student, from the fiery home and rushed them to local hospitals. Ellie, whose full name is Elizabeth Grace Workman, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Vivianne was receiving care at Akron Children’s Hospital, known for its adult and pediatric unit that treats burn victims, according to the Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
“People are just so devastated,” said Maney. “We are used to getting children with significant medical needs and with that we’ve lost children because of their medical diagnoses. But this loss is just so devastating and how it happened. My staff and I are absolutely torn apart.”
Stark DD mourns
Bill Green, superintendent of the Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities, which operates Eastgate, said the board will provide counselors for staff and students on June 1.
“We are just devastated and heartbroken at the news,” Green said on May 30. “Our hearts go out to the family and all of the staff that supported Ellie.”
In a statement, he wrote, “We ask everyone to surround this family with love, prayer, and support as they face an unimaginable loss.”
Ellie’s stepfather and Vivianne’s father Kody Butterbaugh was hospitalized with burn injuries, according to his neighbors. The sheriff’s office has said on May 29 that a man from the scene who was hospitalized was in stable condition.
The Stark County Sheriff’s Office and Stark County Coroner’s Office, which could not be reached the evenings of May 29 and May 30, had not yet confirmed the identity of the child that was killed as of May 31.
Messages seeking comment were sent to Abigail Butterbaugh through Facebook, a family friend and Stark DD.
A GoFundMe fundraiser set up by the friend to help cover the Butterbaughs’ costs of rebuilding their lives had raised at least $17,500 as of the morning of May 31.
‘I am so broken’
On the afternoon of May 30, Ellie’s grandmother Melissa Crossland and her husband, Robert Crossland, stood by the significantly damaged house at 2518 Cathy Drive NE the Butterbaughs rented. The Crosslands live on an adjoining street and had stopped by the site of the fire to try to process what had happened.
Fighting back tears, Melissa Crossland, who is the mother of Ellie’s father, talked about how she had bonded with Ellie, her first grandchild, when the girl came by her house. She expressed anger that the fire had happened and taken away her.
“I think God gave her to me … to brighten my life,” she said. “I am so broken right now.”
Fire officials have yet to announce the cause.
The Crosslands were driving on Cathy Drive SE to their home the evening of May 29 when they said they saw the house on fire and the girls being placed into ambulances. A sheriff’s deputy later told Melissa Crossland outside the severely damaged house that the 6-year-old girl had died.
Melissa Crossland said her granddaughter was a free spirit “full of life” who loved to play and would put on Melissa Crossland’s jewelry and makeup. Last summer, the little girl helped her grandmother plant her garden.
Community comes together
Maney had notified Eastgate staff about Ellie’s death. The staff are contacting the parents of the 79 students at Eastgate so they can inform their children that Ellie will not be with the roughly 30 other Eastgate graduates.
Before the preschool graduates enter the room for the ceremony, their families and the Eastgate staff will hold a moment of silence to honor Ellie’s memory and ask for prayers for Vivianne’s recovery, Maney said.
Green said, “There will be a recognition of (Ellie’s) life and the joy she brought not only to her family but also to our staff.”
“Ellie had a personality that literally just drew you to her,” said Maney. “She was someone that when you walked into the room instantly would come over and greet you, ‘Hi, come in, play with me!’ Everyone was her friend.”
Maney said many of Ellie’s classmates and their parents recently attended Ellie’s 6th birthday party at her house.
“She loved everybody. Everybody loved her,” Ellie’s grandmother Melissa Crossland said. “God gave me an angel. And now she’s gone.”
Her husband, Robert Crossland, said, “She had a beautiful soul.”
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Plain Township fire victim, 6, was ready for school graduation. ‘A beautiful soul.’
Reporting by Robert Wang, Canton Repository / The Repository
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