Woman loses fiancé and dog in alleged drag racing crash

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A wedding in the works is abruptly over after a drag racer hit and killed the groom-to-be and his dog last Wednesday along a Plymouth road.

The bride left behind, Kary Sweeney, is now trying to figure out how to move forward without her soulmate, 56-year-old Greg Schneider.

A man of great patience, Schneider was an angler who knew how to wait for whatever he could reel in. But his greatest catch was later in life, when he met his fiancée.

“In my mind I was planning the wedding, like any woman would do,” Sweeney said.

Those daydreams of her wedding day to Schneider ended on April 28.

“The whole thing was horrible,” Sweeney said.

Jack Blaschke is accused of drag racing along the 45-mile-per-hour County Road 24 in Plymouth, and hitting and killing Schneider and their dog, Zilly. Sweeney wanted to meal prep for her work week ahead as a dental assistant for Health Partners Park Nicollet, so she stayed home instead.

“He took everything that night. He took my future husband, he took my soulmate. Greg and I were soulmates,” Sweeney said

“It’s hard. She was like a baby to us,” she said.

Sweeney says each day that goes by without her soulmate and her dog is different. Some days feel easier.

“I want to remember Greg for the good things we did together, all the trips that we took. Everything he did for me he did because he loved me,” Sweeney said.

Some days she wants to feel angry towards the person who caused this pain, but stops herself.

“I don’t want to be mad at this person that did this, I don’t want to waste my energy,” she said.

That strength she has found is what she caught from Schneider.

“I’m not expecting to come out smelling sweet out of this, but I want to be a better person because Greg gave me all those tools to be that person,” she said.

Schneider and Zilly will be laid to rest next Wednesday.

Blaschke is in jail and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide. If found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

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