CHP HUSBAND'S EMBLEM RETURNED TO WIDOW

Nearly five years ago on a stretch of westbound Interstate 80 in Fairfield, veteran California Highway Patrol Motor Officer Kirk Griess and a civilian motorist lost their lives in a crash caused by a reported distracted driver.

On Friday, Griess' widow recovered a priceless memento of her husband of 26 years — the metal wing wheel emblem that had disappeared from his helmet the day of that tragic collision.

“For me, it's huge. It's a symbol of his badge, what he did,” said Keri Griess from her home on Monday. “I'm very thankful that it's back.”

The piece is special, advised Capt. Mike Lehman, commander of the Solano and Napa branches of the CHP.

“That wing wheel is the crown jewel of that uniform,” he said. “(Motor officers) have to earn that helmet and they're very proud of it.”

Being a motor officer takes specialized training, and Griess had been on the motors team for more than a decade.

Around 9 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2018, Griess had just pulled over Jaime Bueza Manuel near the Manuel Campos exit. Moments later, a vehicle driven by Sean Michael Walker of Rocklin, said to be experiencing a heart attack, crashed into the men. Both subsequently died.

In 2021, Walker, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular manslaughter, was sentenced to 182 days in an “alternative sentencing program,” to perform 160 hours of community service, to participate in the CHP's “Start Smart” safe driving program, and to pay fines and restitution, among other things.

Meanwhile, the search never ended for Griess' miss

ing wing wheel emblem. Officials had even used a metal detector to find it, but it remained hidden.

“I think when he got hit it blew off and it probably got lodged in the dirt,” Keri surmised.

Fast forward to last week, when Caltrans folks were in the area dealing with remnants of recent storms. Keri explained that a worker clearing debris close to the crash site reached into standing water and made a surprise finding that he initially assumed was a shiny bottle opener.

.”Then it hit him what it was,” she wrote in a social media post. “He reached out to CHP turned it in and today (Friday) I was given something very near and dear to my heart.”

When Lehman returned the memento to the widow, she needed a moment.

“I cried all the way home,” Keri remembered.

Kirk had been set to retire in 2022.

The return of the emblem, she said, is the return of a priceless part of Kirk, as he truly loved what he did.

“I'm just thankful for the life that the CHP gave us. All these years he was part of something so good,” she pointed out.

For the CHP, Lehman said, the discovery also had a significant impact.

It “reinvigorates Kirk's memory in our eyes,” he said. “This will be just another way for us to remember Kirk.”

Another way to honor Kirk's memory, Keri said, is to continue to live well. She and their children — Kadi, Kaci and Kole — are healthy and healing. Kirk will never be forgotten, she added, and will forever be loved. The emblem, she said, is simply a tangible part of that.

PHOTOS BY JOEL ROSENBAUM — THE REPORTER Keri Griess of Vacaville pauses Monday as she talks about her late husband, Kirk, and what it means to her and her family that the California Highway Patrol winged-wheel emblem that she assumed had been lost after it broke off his motorcycle helmet when he was killed on westbound Interstate 80nearly five years ago was recently found and returned to her.

Keri Griess of Vacaville holds the California Highway Patrol winged-wheel emblem that was part of her late husband Kirk’s motorcycle helmet was recently found by a Caltrans worker who was clearing debris near the area of the crash on westbound Interstate 80where he was killed nearly five years ago.