KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Jackson County Prosecutor's office is grieving the death of Assistant Prosecutor JoEllen Engelbart due to COVID-19.
Engelbart died Jan. 2 after being hospitalized from contracting the virus around Christmas.
Kelly Collins, a friend and coworker, said Engelbart was "unapologetically the biggest personality when you walked into a room."
"There was no escaping JoEllen in the best way," Collins said, "and you didn't want to escape her."
Engelbart and Collins sat next to each other while working at the sexual victims unit in the Jackson County Prosecutor's Independence office. Collins said Engelbart was dedicated to her job.
"She was such a fierce advocate for those victims," Collins said.
Engelbart first worked as an intern at the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office and worked her way up to a full time job.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Engelbart was an assistant prosecutor who got into public service "for all the right reasons."
"After getting that full time position, she didn’t take a step back," Peters Baker said. "Jo was always that person that she ran our internship program and she took it up a whole notch from what we had done before. So she was just always that person."
Engelbart was hospitalized with COVID-19 while pregnant, and on Dec. 29 she gave birth -- three months early. Englebart's newborn son still is in the neonatal intensive care unit. Collins told 41 Action News he is doing well.
"He actually was the forefront her entire time in the hospital -- even before she went to the hospital ," Collins said, "and then when she was able to text us at the beginning when she was at the hospital that was always her biggest concern was her baby."
Peters Baker agreed.
"I think Jo then probably gave that ultimate sacrifice was making sure that he survived," Peters Baker said.
As a way to grieve and support Engelbart's family, Collins started a Go Fund Me page and by 5 p.m. Sunday, it had raised more than $75,000.
"The GoFundMe shows how loved she was," Collins said, "and the biggest thing and the most important thing to her was family. And so I think knowing that her family is being taken care of and others are doing things are especially important."
Peters Baker said the prosecutor's office is working on ways to honor Engelbart so her memory lives on.
"Jo was in that really really hard unit where she prosecuted sex crimes against kids and adults," Peters Baker said, "and so we want to make sure at the right time in his life he’ll (her son) have something that we could, his family can pass on to him about who she was professionally and how important she was to this community."
