The Twin Cities couple sat in their car, just the two of them, full of anticipation, ready to capture their own little gender reveal party on video.

Christopher Yang silently read the message on his phone, exaggerating it with a high-pitched gasp.

“Show me!” his wife, Melinda Thao, insisted. Yang turned the phone toward her.

“It’s a girl!” she said as she reached for the phone to read it herself. “Oh my God. Weird, crazy!”

On Sunday, just five weeks after that moment of joy, Thao and her future daughter, whom they named Leona, were killed in a collision at an intersection in Coon Rapids. Yang suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The same day Yang posted the video on YouTube, Makayla April Sua Richardson, 20, of Mounds View, was arraigned in Anoka County District Court on one count each of vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving and two counts of careless driving in connection with Sunday’s collision at the intersection of NW. Coon Rapids Boulevard and Springbrook Drive.

Richardson was detained, appeared in court on Tuesday and was released on bail on Wednesday. She is due back in court on September 12.

In an online fundraiser to help with expenses related to the death of his wife and their unborn child, Yang detailed the difficulties they faced in becoming parents for the first time and shared the news of whether it would be a boy or a girl.