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Family Awaits Closure After Interstate 4 Accidents

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2008

TAMPA - Wendy Fricke knew something was wrong when her husband didn't pick up his cell phone.

"Baby, please call me," she pleaded into his voice mail.

Michael Fricke

He never called back.

Fricke thinks her husband, Michael Fricke Jr., 34, was one of the four people who died in the Interstate 4 mayhem Wednesday, when heavy fog and smoke led to overturned trucks, smashed cars and a 70-vehicle pileup. The wreckage closed a 14-mile stretch of highway for about 36 hours.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper, carrying a printout of her husband's photo and some of his personal information, arrived at Wendy Fricke's house Wednesday night and asked for his medical and dental records. The trooper said he could not say whether her husband was dead.

She hasn't heard anything since. That's the hardest, most frustrating part, she said.

"I'm getting mad," she said Sunday, sitting in her mother's dining room, surrounded by family and photographs of her husband. "I'm getting furious. Would you not want to know? No, you'd want to know."

Trooper Larry Coggins, a spokesman for the patrol, said troopers have to be very careful when it comes to identifying the victims of fatal crashes. Only the medical examiner's office can give a positive identification, he said.

"We have to be 100 percent accurate in reporting the details of a crash, not to mention something as important as someone passing away," Coggins said. "We can't go on our gut feelings. We have to have the concrete information."

To the family, all the information adds up to Fricke having died on the interstate.

As he did every morning, he left his Clair Mel City home Wednesday at 2:30 a.m. to drive his route from Tampa to Cocoa Beach, delivering liquor and wine for Premier Beverage Co. He drove I-4 every day.

He made every delivery on his route, 100 percent of the time. Wednesday, though, not one of the regulars on his route got their deliveries, Wendy Fricke said.

He loved to drive, family and friends said. One year, he placed second in his company in a truck rally for Premier, driving obstacle courses and weaving between cones. He went on to championships for the state of Florida and again placed second.

"He was born to drive," his wife said.

The couple met as teenagers at night school in Brandon. He was a "metal head" with long hair and a brush in the back pocket of his jeans. He was one of the popular kids; she was a nerd.

"The second I met him, I knew," she said.

On their first date, they hung out as friends. She kissed him as the car radio played Garth Brooks' "Shameless." It became their song.

They got married at Titus Baptist Church in 1993, the same year he graduated from high school. She was 17, and their first son was on the way.

They had three children: two sons, now ages 14 and 6, and a 3-year-old daughter. He worked, while she stayed at home with the children and went to beauty school to become an aesthetician and nail tech.

Michael Fricke loved video games, white wolves and playing with his kids. He went to church at First Baptist Church of Palm River every Sunday. He was large - 6-foot-1 and 280 pounds. His-brother-in law lovingly called him "my little ogre."

For now, his family members are drawing strength from their faith. They went to church Sunday morning and planned to go back Sunday night.

"We'll make it through," said father-in-law Stephen Wymer. "I know there's a reason, and the Lord knows it. I don't. I will some day."

Editor Jeff Scullin contributed to this report. Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at nwhite1@tampatrib.com or (813) 779-4613.

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