by Bea Peterson
A 911 call at 1:46 am Friday, August 23, alerted the County to a one car accident on Mitchell Road in Hoosick. [private]The Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department and the Hoosick and West Hoosick Fire Departments responded to the site where they found that a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee, driven by 32 year old Crystal T. Yerdon, had struck a tree and left the roadway. Yerdon and her passenger and fiancé George J. Badger, 31, were pronounced dead at the scene. Yerdon was not wearing a seat belt. Badger had to be extricated from the vehicle.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. However, at this time, speed appears to be a contributing factor. The Sheriff’s Office is being assisted in the investigation by the New York State Police Troop G Collision Reconstruction Unit.
The couple previously lived in Troy and had recently moved to Mitchell Road. Badger, a construction worker, is survived by his parents, four brothers, two sisters, a step-brother, grandparents and several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. Yerdon is survived by her parents, four children, three brothers, two sisters and several nieces, nephews and cousins. For a time she attended Berlin High School.
Funeral services for the couple were held in Troy on Wednesday, August 28. Following the service they were buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy.
Mitchell Road is a scenic unlighted dead-end dirt road with a handful of houses on it. Now there is a spot on it where a cross, balloons and several bouquets of flowers mark the memorial spot where a young couple lost their lives.
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