Deadly crash shatters California ‘dream life’ being built by Twin Cities high school sweethearts

Friends are rallying on behalf of a Twin Cities family after high school sweethearts from Belle Plaine were involved in a single-vehicle crash in California over the weekend that killed the husband and left his wife hospitalized with critical injuries.

Marcus and Ally Giesen, both 26, were passengers in an SUV on Saturday when the wreck occurred, heading from their home in the Santa Monica area for a getaway to Yosemite National Park in northern California, said longtime friend Stephanie Bode.

Also lost in the crash was the couple’s beloved dog, a golden doodle named Sky.

The Giesens’ vehicle crashed after leaving the road in Pixley, about halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno, the California Highway Patrol said Thursday.

Ally Giesen works as a nurse at a fertility clinic, while Marcus was a freelance videographer and video editor, Bode said. They moved to California in 2021 and were coming up on their second wedding anniversary in September.

The couple, 2016 graduates of Belle Plaine High School, were “building their dream life together living in California,” friends posted on an online fund-raising page that was started to help with Ally Giesen’s medical expenses and arrangements needed for her husband.

Bode said Ally Giesen’s condition has stabilized, but she remained in intensive care Thursday at Kaweah Health Medical Center in Visalia with fractures in her back and neck.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Highway Patrol gave this account of the crash:

The SUV, driven by 38-year-old Ricardo Herrera, crashed shortly after 9 a.m. on northbound State Route 99 after Herrera drifted onto the left shoulder and grazed a guardrail. Herrera steered to the right and rolled the vehicle, which landed wheels up on the grassy embankment.

Bystanders rushed in, got the SUV upright and attempted to remove the Giesens from the wreckage.

The Highway Patrol did not indicate why Herrera lost control of the vehicle, but it did not appear that he was impaired by drugs or alcohol. He declined medical treatment.