- Julie Sheriff, 46, from Rockingham, WA lost her daughter Abbey, just 21, to a drug driver
- Investigators found driver Evie Lyn Butterworth was travelling at 147km/h before the devastating crash
- Now living with unimaginable grief, Julie is honouring Abbey’s memory by launching a foundation and educating young people about the deadly consequences of drug driving
Here Julie shares her story in her own words.
Watching as my daughter Abbey and her friends danced, I felt so proud.
It was October 2022 and together with her dad, Darren, then 51, we were celebrating our girl’s 21st birthday at the Araluen Botanical Gardens, WA.
Before we had Abbey, Darren and I had suffered 11 miscarriages and a devastating stillbirth.
In 2001, I learned I was pregnant again.
It was an anxious nine months, but that October, I gave birth to our miracle, Abbey Rose.
‘We were a tight-knit family.’
As our girl grew up, she loved sports, especially swimming and footy.
And aged 12, she even helped save a stranger from a near drowning incident at the public pool.
We were a tight-knit family of three.
‘I’ve never seen a bond so close,’ people would say.
Family was Abbey’s top priority.
As a teen she’d drop everything to babysit her young cousins Jaxon, now 17, and twins Harry and Kaylee, 15, if my sister Jodie was at work.
By the time her 21st rolled around, our girl was working in retail and her future was looking bright.
One night the following January, Abbey told me she was going to visit a friend who was having a hard time.
It was past 11pm, but she said she was really worried about him.
As she climbed into her car, a niggling feeling plagued me.
‘I think you should stay home,’ I said.
But my girl, who always put others ahead of herself, insisted she go.
‘I love you so much, Mama,’ she said, before driving off towards the freeway to Armadale, WA.
I went back to bed and waited for Abbey to text me when she’d arrived, like she’d promised.
It was a 45-minute drive to her friend’s from our home in Meadow Springs.
‘She didn’t pick up.’
She should be there by now, I fretted.
I tried calling, but she didn’t pick up.
‘I feel like something bad has happened,’ I told Darren after waking him.
Just under an hour after Abbey left, we jumped into our car and set off.
About 20 minutes later, as we drove north on the Kwinana Freeway, we saw a road sign reading, Major crash ahead.
And I could see red and blue lights flashing.
Heart racing, Darren pulled over and I tried to get out of the car, but traffic control stopped me.
All I could see was a helicopter leaving the scene.
‘I think that’s my daughter,’ I cried to police.
I described Abbey’s charcoal grey Nissan X-Trail, and the officer admitted the same model car had been involved, but couldn’t elaborate further.
‘We hoped for a miracle.’
Deep down we knew it was Abbey, and she’d been hurt, but we hoped for a miracle.
We waited three agonising hours in the car, before my worst fears were confirmed.
‘I’m sorry, but your daughter is dead,’ a detective told us.
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‘No!’ I screamed into Darren’s chest.
I listened in horror, hearing she’d been hit by another car.
They suspected the driver was under the influence of drugs.
My only child, the one we had spent over a decade trying to bring into the world, was gone.
Back home, Darren and I felt totally lost.
At Abbey’s funeral 18 days later, it was like I was stuck in a horrible nightmare.
Two months later, Evie Lyn Butterworth, then 28, was charged with manslaughter and driving a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs.
I’d never felt such hatred.
Her selfish choice had robbed us of our girl.
I’d never forgive her.
In the months that followed, drowning in grief, Darren and I sadly separated.
But determined to get justice for Abbey, we remained a united front as we faced our daughter’s killer in the WA Supreme Court in November 2024, six months after she’d pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The prosecution had dropped the other charge as it was encompassed by the manslaughter charge.
Ahead of sentencing, Darren and I listened in horror as the details of the crash were laid bare.
Butterworth, high on a cocktail of cocaine and methylamphetamine, was travelling 147kph as she approached Abbey’s car from behind.
She tried to brake, but it was too late.
As she hit Abbey’s car, my darling girl lost control and rolled several times off the freeway and into the bushes, stopping 94 metres from the point of impact.
Sickeningly, Butterworth claimed to people who’d stopped that she was the victim of a hit and run.
But one of the men discovered our girl’s car nearby.
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He checked Abbey’s pulse, and she was still breathing.
Rushing to his car, he called emergency services, but by the time he got back to Abbey, she’d tragically died.
‘No sentence could ever reflect the value of Abbey’s life.’
Justice Alain Musikanth said, ‘No sentence could ever reflect the value of Abbey’s life.’
As Butterworth, then 30, was jailed for nine years and six months, Darren and I breathed a sigh of relief.
She was also given a 10 year driver’s licence disqualification to be served after her release.
I moved to Rockingham to be close to my mum Fiona.
I’ve sought therapy for my anxiety, depression and PTSD.
I’m also receiving treatment for renal cancer, which was diagnosed early last year.
I’m now in the process of starting a foundation to help families impacted by drug-driving accidents.
And I hope to give talks to schools to educate students on the dangers of driving under the influence.
I know that by helping others, as Abbey did, my girl would be so proud.
