On August 25, 2022, U.S. Diplomat, mother of two, and wife, Sarah (Debbink) Langenkamp, was tragically killed while biking home from her sons’ new elementary school in Bethesda, Maryland.
Sarah had just returned in July to the United States from Ukraine, where she led a team managing some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive and important priorities there, such as helping to reform Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions, holding Russia accountable for war crimes, and providing assistance to Ukraine’s national police and border guard.
An avid cyclist, Sarah had commuted by bike all over the world. On August 25, after completing a 24-mile roundtrip ride to work in downtown Washington, D.C., she was heading home from her children’s new elementary school when her phone’s map app took her down an unprotected bike lane on Bethesda’s River Road—a busy commercial route where bikes have to compete with cars and industrial traffic. She was hit and killed by a flatbed truck making a right turn into a parking lot. Sarah, who had been evacuated from Ukraine for her safety, was killed less than a month after her arrival in the Washington area.
Sarah left behind her two boys and her husband, Dan.