WARREN, Ohio – A sport utility vehicle carrying eight teenagers crashed into a guardrail Sunday morning and flipped over into a swampy pond in northeast Ohio, killing five boys and a girl, while two other boys escaped, the state highway patrol said.
Highway Patrol officials say speed was a factor in the violent early morning crash of a sports utility vehicle that killed six teenagers in the northeast Ohio.
The Honda Passport veered off the left side of a road, hit a guardrail and overturned just south of the city of Warren, about 60 miles east of Cleveland, Lt. Anne Ralston said. Investigators say it came to rest upside down in the swamp and sank with five of the victims trapped inside. A sixth who was thrown from the SUV during the crash was found under it when the vehicle was taken out of the water.
The two survivors escaped and ran to a nearby home to call 911, the highway patrol said.
Ralston didn't know where the teens were headed when the crash happened at about 7 a.m. She didn't have any information to release on possible causes or factors in the crash, but the highway patrol planned a news conference for Sunday night.
"All I know is my baby is gone," said Derrick Ray, who came to the crash site after viewing his 15-year-old son
Daylan's body at the county morgue. He said he knew that his son,
a talented football player who was looking forward to playing in high school, was out with friends, but didn't know their plans.
...
There were also notes at the memorial, including a letter from Daylan Ray's 12-year-old half-sister, Mariah Bryant, who said she had learned they were related only in the past year.
...
All those killed were ages 14 to 19, authorities said. State police identified them as 19-year-old Alexis Cayson;
Andrique Bennett, 14; Brandon Murray, 17; and
Kirklan Behner,
Ramone White and Ray, all 15. The Highway Patrol said Alexis was the only female in the vehicle. It wasn't clear who was driving.