CALGARY - Four teens were remembered by about 500 people at a candlelight vigil in Magrath, a small town south of Lethbridge, on Sunday night.
The teens were killed following a single-vehicle rollover blamed on “speed and driver inexperience,” RCMP said.
The victims have been identified by friends on social-media sites as 16-year-old boys Clay Card and Renzo Dainard, and 14-year-old girls Jorden Miller and Danae Gough.
Before dawn on Sunday, paramedics and police found the teens’ car upside down and partially submerged in a creek east of Magrath, 32 kilometres south of Lethbridge.
“The two boys were always fun to be around, they were always in all the class pictures, they are always the goofs,” said Shay Hoyt, 16, who helped plan the vigil.
“The girls, they are really sweet. When I was looking for pictures, putting them on the poster, I noticed how close they were with their friends and family.
“I could barely find a picture of them by themselves, they were always with their friends and family.”
“I’ve grown up with them. . . .
It’s devastating,” said Joseph Alston, a Grade 9 classmate of the girls. They were all well-liked and widely known in the small community, he added.
The vigil was held on the football field at the high school. There was a mixture of tears and laughter as mourners remembered the four teens.
“When I found out, I was really upset and I wanted to do something important that would mean something to each and every family,” Hoyt said.
“It was amazing how many people were e-mailing me, phoning me, asking to help.”
Mayor Russ Barnett said the vigil was an important gesture for everyone in the town.
“It starts the grieving process for the youth, which is important to talk and share their emotions and what’s been going on with them,” said Barnett.
The boys were in Grade 11 and the girls in Grade 9, all at Magrath Junior-Senior High School.
In a small community such as Magrath, population 2,300, most teens know each other, Barnett noted.
The mayor added the town is still coming to grips with the accident.
“The town is in shock, grieving, sadness, starting to respond to the accident,” said Barnett.
“It’s such a tragedy. It’s difficult to wrap your head around what’s going on around town right now.”
School staff held emergency meetings Sunday to organize plans to make crisis counsellors available for grieving classmates.
“We’re just saddened by the tragedy, and looking to do what we can to support the families, and the rest of the kids,” said school principal Rob Doig.
“There are just so many ties within the families in the community.”
RCMP officers from three southern Alberta detachments have investigated, and initial findings point to speed and inexperience, not alcohol.
The teens had been reported missing earlier that night, said RCMP Const. Nathan Moore.
“Somebody was out looking for them. We kind of expected them to be found pulled over at the side of the road,” he said.
But he said speed and a hilly road made for a deadly combination.
“There’s quite a curve and a dip. It’s pitch black — you can’t see very much.”
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