Mourners gathered Sunday at an impromptu creekside memorial in Sewickley Township to honor four Yough High School students killed in a car crash early Saturday morning.
Many cried or stood solemnly at the picturesque site. Some left flowers, photos and other keepsakes near the creek bank, still scattered with broken glass and charred by the fiery crash.
Shane Venezia was among the visitors. He said his cousin had died in the Saturday crash.
A resident of East Palestine, Ohio, Venezia, 21, said he rushed to Sewickley Township on Saturday to help comfort his family.
But he, too, wept as he stood at the makeshift shrine along Sewickley Creek. He said he had barely slept.
“I’m glad they made the memorial,” Venezia said. “But it breaks my heart just to see it.”
Westmoreland County Coroner John Ackerman said his office is using DNA testing to identify those killed.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, Yough School District confirmed that the victims were four high school students.
Yough schools will be open tomorrow and the district will have additional counselors and support staff at its middle and high schools, the statement said. It encouraged students and staff who may be struggling to take advantage of the resources.
“We understand that everyone processes grief differently, and we will continue to respond with compassion, flexibility and care in the days ahead,” the statement said.
Venezia called his cousin who died in the crash “feisty” but “caring.” He said they didn’t always get along, but they loved each other.
“I’d do anything to have an argument with her again,” Venezia said.
Elena Unger, a Yough sophomore, said she knew the four victims of the crash. She had recently been messaging one of them to make plans, she said.
A day-and-a-half after the crash, Unger, 17, said it still feels like she’s waiting to wake up from a dream.
“Everyone’s lost,” she said.
Jeremy Jackson, a high school student from Norwin, dropped off some keepsakes at the memorial. He said he was friends with one of the crash victims.
The incident, he said, was “heartbreaking.”
“He was definitely a funny boy,” Jackson, 17, said of one of the victims.
Passing by the memorial on his motorcycle, Richard O’Brien stopped to pay his respects.
Though he didn’t know the victims, O’Brien paused to shake hands with mourners and offer his condolences.
“I hate to see this kind of stuff,” he said.
About a mile up the road in South Huntingdon, Yukon Volunteer Fire Department made the “last minute” decision to donate the proceeds of its annual Easter Bunny Breakfast to the families of the victims, said Assistant Chief Dawn Schaer.
The department also created an online donation page to aid the families.
A mother of four, Schaer said news of the crash has “devastated” the Yough community.
“It’s just touched all of us,” she said.
Still, Schaer said she was glad to see the community come out to the fundraiser and was impressed by the amount of online donations.
Another online fundraiser for one of the victims had garnered more than 100 donations and thousands of dollars by early Sunday afternoon.
It’s been decades since the mostly rural community has seen anything like Saturday’s crash.
On March 16, 1974, six Sewickley Township teenagers were killed in a two-vehicle collision on Lowber Road near Herminie. Bryan Grabar, 17; Bruce Grabar, 14; Mark Lash, 16; Kerry Weigand, 15; James Steban, 15; and Keith Carvallis, 16, died in the crash.