It was practically every day after school that neighbor Felicity Martini was knocking on Laura Fronczak’s Yukon door, asking if her daughters could come out to play when they were younger.
Fronczak and daughter Brianna Brown, 14, remembered Martini, one of four teens killed in a fiery car crash last weekend, during a candlelight vigil Friday evening in Sewickley Township.
“It’s been really beautiful to see the community come together for their families,” Fronczak said.
That community was out in full force at Crabapple Lake Community Park to grieve and mourn the four Yough High School students — Martini, 15, of Yukon; Rocco Zugai, 18, of West Newton; Brady Hunker, 15, of Herminie; and Kylee Korber, 16, of Ruffs Dale.
Police said Zugai was behind the wheel of a Kia Forte when it crashed into a tree on rural Derr Road in Sewickley Township. Hunker, 15, was in the passenger seat, and the girls were in the back.
“These kids are not defined by this accident, they are defined by who they were,” said West Newton First Church of God Pastor Beth Dunlap, “by the people that they were, by the people that they loved and by the people that loved them.”
Mourners at the vigil heard prayers and messages of support from local pastors while birds chirped as they settled in the trees for the night. The setting sun tinged the edges of clouds with muted pink as a chilly breeze swept through a memorial garden where about 150 people gathered.
Dunlap encouraged them to talk about their feelings.
“Whatever you are feeling is what you are feeling,” she said. “It’s not right, it’s not wrong, it’s whatever it is, and that’s OK.”
Brianna Brown said when she and Martini got together when they were younger, they’d usually play with dolls or on Martini’s swing set.
“She was really funny, really caring,” Brown said.
Candlelight spread throughout the group as a keyboard was played. Mourners joined together in singing “Amazing Grace” before four floating lanterns lifted into the sky, their flames dotted against the clouds.
Alexis Hays, 16, remembered having fun with Martini during events at New Life Tabernacle in New Stanton.
“She was very smart, very kind, very generous, open-hearted,” said Hays, a freshman at Yough.
The crash was reported at 3:30 a.m., but investigators believe it happened much earlier based on the damage to the car. The last contact with someone in the car was at 1:30 a.m.
The preliminary investigation showed speed likely was a factor in the crash, state police said. Autopsies and toxicology tests are pending. Troopers were trying to narrow a timeline leading up to the crash in an effort to figure out where the group had been that night and where they were heading.
