American Idol Season 8 Hopeful Jessika Baier Killed in Early Morning Crash

By On 12/08/2009 · 18 Comments · In American Idol

Jessika Baier, an American Idol hopeful from the Season 8 auditions in Puerto Rico, died in an early morning crash in Sylvan, Michigan today. From Mlive:

Jessika Baier, 21, was heading west about 3:15 a.m. near Pierce Road in Washtenaw County’s Sylvan Township when her vehicle left the road, according to a Michigan State Police news release.

The vehicle traveled into the median and struck an embankment, which caused the vehicle to go airborne and overturn, according to the release, sent by a trooper at the Ypsilanti post.
Baier died at the scene, said state police Sgt. Tony Cuevas.

Cuevas said police do not know what caused her vehicle to leave the road. The road conditions were not bad and alcohol is not believed to be a factor.

Jessika Baier, morning show co-host for Jackson radio station WKHM-FM, died early today in a vehicle wreck on I-94.

According to statements made by her family, she likely was heading to work, Cuevas said.
The crash remains under investigation, he said.

Jessika brought her whole family to Puerto Rico to audition, and despite having won numerous singing competitions, failed to impress the judges with her version of Celine Dion’s “I Surrender”. Watch her audition after the jump.

I had to re-watch her audition to remember who she was.

Video after the JUMP…

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  • becausehelives

    Now I remember her. Her whole family came to her audition. That’s the 2nd idol hopeful now to died in an accident. so sad. God be with her family. RIP Jessika.

  • gangreen29

    How sad. She wasn’t even that bad on AI, I thought she had a fairly powerful voice and definitely could see how she won a bunch of contests.

  • abbysee

    Like I said in the headlines thread, how tragic. She was so young…..I didn’t think she was any worse than Tatiana, that’s for sure. I just think the damn song should only be sung by Celine, and then again, maybe not at all. They were also OTT in their bashing, except the lovely Paula. They are some fucking clueless louts, the lot of them that’s left.

  • NatalijaS

    That’s such a shame, the poor girl was so young. To this day, I don’t know why the judges were so incredibly harsh on her. I remember being stunned by their reactions – I’m not saying she should have been allowed through, but they reacted to her as if she was completely out of tune. I really felt for her at that audition. And for what it’s worth, her version of that song was better than the one Lil Rounds did in the live shows.

  • TwigLA

    Such a shame for a young life to be cut so short. Good thoughts go out to her family in this sad time.

    I think Randy said it all with his comment, ‘It was the 700 competitions.’ They didn’t want someone like her on the show. Her audition did show nerves and was a bit off, but it wasn’t that bad.

  • http://onlinepastrychef.wordpress.com/ onlinepastrychef

    Very, very sad to hear when anyone dies young.

  • OhMyRawrrr

    What a sad, sad shame – she seemed like such a sweet, bubbly girl and I think she sounded lovely in her audition. I’m so disgusted with the judges :(

  • wolfsbane813

    i never understood why they didn’t like her. i really liked her audition… yeah, she is a cocky son-of-a-gun, but she has a voice.

    god bless her family and i hope they get through this. RIP

  • jack5791

    That’s awful…I actually didn’t think she was that bad on AI. So young.

  • druzilla

    She had a pretty good voice but needed better control and to learn less is more when it comes to singing. RIP.

    I wonder if she looked more like a “package artist” if they’d have given her a pass.

  • tinawina

    Oh this is awful. My heart goes out to her family. She was so young, it was a shame.

    She had a good voice, she just had learned to sing in that yelly all-power note manner that wins you talent shows. She just needed to learn subtlety, and develop some sense of vocal style. But as usual, the judges were asses about it.

    RIP Ms. Baier.

  • MissM

    Ohmigod. That’s horrible. She seemed like such a sweetheart and she was a good singer too! Poor thing :(

  • http://myspace.com hgzaj

    I remember her perfectly. I remember how she was actually good and the judges didn’t let her through and how that kind of made me mad. She wasn’t perfect but she was damn well good enough to go through. In fact, I even remember a vlogger saying they probably didn’t let her through because she was a “bigger” white girl. [when have you ever seen a "bigger" white girl go through?] So point made there.

    Having said that, very sad. Things could have been different had the judges been fair! RIP

  • colette

    seeing a lovely young girl, so full of life, leave us this way……my sympathies to her family, who sound like they are very close-knit and must be devastated…..

  • Pam

    It’s such a shame she had to die so young. She does seem to have a tight close-nit family and hopefully they will be able to get through this tragedy together. I send my deepest sympathies to them.

  • Duke

    God thats gut wrenching. i recognized/remembered her from the pic. soo sad.

  • Grammie Kari

    So sad to see someone that young die. It always seems harder when things happy during the holidays. May God bless her family.

  • jleew

    I went to high school with her and she was far from a sweet girl she was a prissy bitch who thought she was better than everyone….thats being said its sad that shes dead now….nobody deserves to die so young i myself am 21 and it puts things into prospective…life can end in a split second so make yours count as much as possible….i know you liked to give me shit in school jess but i hope ur in a better place