Family member of home explosion victims discusses tragedy

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KSFY/Gray News) - A woman who lost her brother in a house explosion described the moment she first heard of the tragedy.

On Oct. 18, 21-year-old Hannah Goehring was at home in Scottsdale, Arizona, when her cousin called her to tell her that her only sibling had died and her parents were being airlifted to a hospital after the place she grew up in exploded, KSFY reports.

“I was screaming ‘This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening,’ for about 10 minutes,” she said. “It was the worst day of my life.”

Hannah Goehring booked a flight to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, not knowing if her parents were going to make it.

“My brain, it was just in a daze. I’m trying to pack. I knew I’d be here for a while,” she said. “All I knew was that Ben was gone. I just packed a bunch of black clothes for a funeral. That’s all I packed, because, I was like, I don’t know if I was going to have one funeral. Three funerals?”

Hannah Goehring says she cried the entire three-hour plane ride. When she landed, she learned that they had survived.

Authorities are still investigating what caused the massive explosion that propelled the family members several feet from the house, in different directions, from where the structure stood.

When Hannah Goehring checked into the hospital that afternoon, she was not allowed to see her mother Lori Goehring, who was still in critical condition in the ICU. She says she cried when she first saw her father Leland Goehring, who told her his account of what happened.

“My dad was trapped under debris, and the first thing he told me was that when he was crawling toward my mom, he found two pictures of me,” she said. “Somehow in the explosion, somehow he found them. That’s insane. He was in his underwear at the time because they were all sleeping, so he stuffed them in there, and he was trying to crawl out to help my mom because they were both screaming. They were screaming for Ben and got no answer.”

Lori Goehring remains hospitalized, recovering from 12 broken ribs, a broken pelvis and femur, a fractured hand and some fractures in her neck. Her brain functions and she can talk, but doctors said she will not be able to bear any weight for 10 weeks. A long road of physical therapy to learn to walk again is ahead.

Leland Goehring, 60, was released after two weeks with six broken ribs, a broken hip which was replaced, brain bleeding and internal injuries to the spleen, liver and small intestine. He now lives in the hotel room Hannah Goehring has been staying in, and she needs to assist him with things. He was glad to be out of the hospital but wanted to go right back there to visit his wife the next morning.

“It’s been challenging and emotional for all three of us,” Hannah Goehring said. “It’s just hard, you know, because you spend two weeks in the hospital and get discharged, and all you want to do is go home. So now, we just have to stay in a hotel room. It’s not the same at all.”

The house where the family lived for about a decade is just a pile of rubble on the grounds of an investigation scene, but it is far from the family’s biggest loss in the tragedy.

Hannah Goehring says was extremely close with her brother Ben Goehring, who was 17 months older. When they were younger, people thought they were twins.

“Obviously no one deserves what happens to me and my family,” she said. “No one deserves to lose a child, a brother. Ben, especially does not deserve this because he was so amazing, and just the absolute most perfect human ever. He was kind. He was incredibly smart. Very, very humble. Just always helping people and I’m not joking — I never heard him say a bad thing about anybody. Just incredibly kind and so witty. Just had this great sense of humor and he was just so funny without even trying.”

A prom king at West Central High School, Ben Goehring had just graduated summa cum laude from Augustana in May, with a degree in computer science. His family says he was always the tech wiz of the family, helping his parents and sister figure out everything from computers to Nintendo Wii systems. For the five months since graduation, he had been studying for additional certificates in the computer field, which he was excited to join.

“Just talking to him, you wanted to be a better person because of him,” Hannah Goehring said. “He’s someone that I really, really looked up to and will forever look up to.”

She was walking in the hospital the other day and saw what appeared to be a medical student or intern, about the same height as her brother, far away and out of the corner of her eye.

“He barely looked like Ben, and I had to do a double take because I was, like, ‘Oh, that’s Ben,” Hannah Goehring said. “And, it hit me, like, ‘Oh, he’s not here.’ Same thing, — I heard someone laugh and it’s like just a little bit like Ben, and in the back of my mind I was like, ‘Oh, it’s Ben.’ So, it’s just really hard to comprehend everything, and, you know? There are some moments when I’m alone that I get to thinking about it.”

Hannah Goehring says you assume that your sibling will be with you your entire life.

“After your parents are gone, you assume they’ll be with you, and it’s really hard to understand or believe I don’t have him anymore, and that my parents won’t have him. It’ll just be me,” she said.

Hannah Goehring got emotional talking about what she and her family have been through.

“Those three are my entire world. Like, my entire world. So, it’s just hard. And, then, the realization that I’m going to get married and he’s not going to be there. I’m going to have kids one day. They’re not going to know their uncle, and I was hoping Ben would get married first so I can like wait until I’m 35, hoping he would have kids and then I would have another family — his wife, his kids, you know?” she said.

On that fateful day, Lori Goehring was three days away from her 60th birthday. Hannah Goehring, a Pilates instructor, has been planning a clothing line as her next career move, and her mom was going to be the first to know on her birthday. Those professional plans are on hold as she now helps run the family farm with farm hands. On Thursday, she’ll put the family’s calves up for sale, since her father won’t physically be able to work for quite some time.

Hannah Goehring would like to plan a funeral for her brother but said there won’t be one until her mom is out of the hospital. That won’t be for at least a couple of months.

Friends, family and strangers are already helping the family pay for that and her parents’ medical expenses, via a GoFundMe page.

Last week, over 100 families and friends helped harvest the over 500 acres of corn and soybeans of Goehring family farmland. Some were there by 8 a.m. Some worked the land. Some farmers’ wives and others stayed back with Hannah Goehring for support and brought food.

Many told her it was the least they could do because her parents are two of the most selfless people you’ll meet, Hannah Goehring said.

“It’s absolutely amazing and comforting,” she said. “Since the day it happened, I’ve had a lot of people call me, text me, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook me, my cousins, my entire family. And, just getting those messages of love and support is very comforting, especially the heartfelt ones that mention Ben.”

More help is on the way and a fundraiser for the family will be held Nov. 18, with a pork loin dinner and a DJ. Hannah Goehring says it will be another way to celebrate Ben Goehring’s life.

“It just warms my heart that people saw Ben the way I did, and the way he was, so we can never, ever, ever, ever thank everyone for their support,” Hannah Goehring said. “There’s just no words for this and what happened and just no amount of words to thank everyone and truly show our gratitude and our appreciation, and it’s just so overwhelming in the best way of how much support we have.”

Hannah Goehring says that although everything going on is overwhelming, she and her father remind each other to take things one day at a time. To just get through the next day.

She can’t yet comprehend or process all of it.

“Oct. 18, you know, my world just turned upside down and it still honestly doesn’t feel real,” she said. “I’m running around, trying to get things taken care of with the farm. Our house is gone, my brother is gone, and everything is just piling on top of each other. So, I haven’t even gotten to, you know, stop and think about things.

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