ST. LOUIS — Nearly eight months ago, 17-year-old Janae Edmondson was in downtown St. Louis for a volleyball tournament at the Dome at America's Center when she was struck by a car and lost both of her legs.
Last week, the now-18-year-old walked without crutches at a Friday night football game at her old high school in Smyrna, Tennessee, according to her mother Marilyn Edmondson, in an update to the "Pray for Janae" GoFundMe campaign. Janae walked the track around the football field with a little support from her mother and volleyball coach Katy Bell on each arm.
"It's these moments that help pull us through the really hard ones..." Marilyn wrote on Saturday. "Thank you for your continued prayers. God bless you all."
As of Monday morning, the campaign had raised more than $836,000 of its $900,000 goal. The money will go toward the teen's medical bills and other needs following the crash.
In July, Janae received her first set of prosthetics and began training to walk again.
Since the crash, Janae has undergone numerous surgeries, doctor appointments and physical therapy on her journey to recovery. Nevertheless, she also got to attend prom, sign with Middle Tennessee State University to play volleyball, graduate high school, celebrate her 18th birthday and get baptized alongside her mother.
In June, Kevin Carnie Jr. of the Simon law firm and Robert Blitz of the Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch law firm filed a lawsuit on Janae's behalf against the City of St. Louis, the man who police said was driving the car that hit her along with his mother and a car rental business.
The man who allegedly caused the crash, 21-year-old Daniel Riley, was on house arrest at the time for a 2020 robbery and had violated his GPS monitoring dozens of times.
The incident triggered public criticism of the office of former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, ending with her resignation in May.
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