Four young adults remembered

Dozens of family, friends and community members stopped by the bridge where four young people were killed. They were found in an overturned vehicle in Bennett's Creek off Route 248 near Jasper three days after they went missing. Now the community is saying goodbye with a man-made shrine of flowers, teddy bears and balloons.

"I just broke down," said Brandon Haines, an 8th grader at Jasper-Troupsberg. "I didn't know what to believe."

Like so many people, Haines was in shock after hearing some of his closest friends had been killed. Among them was David Cady, a 17-year-old who was already making it as a carpenter. Jared Fry was also a friend of Haines. The 15-year-old was a talented soccer player and wrestler.

"They just came over a lot. We hung out, and we were friends," Haines said. "Now I have nothing left to remember them by."

Unfortunately, they weren't the only two young kids being remembered. Family and friends told me about 17-year-old Tiara O'Dell. She had just been named homecoming queen, and she was a star soccer player. Friends said she was "bubbly" and happy.

Then there is 21-year-old Joey Lubberts. He already graduated from Jasper-Troupsberg High School, but he was making his way in the workforce. His aunt and uncle say he kept to himself, but he had a good heart.

Superintendent Chad Groff says it is no wonder so many people turned out to search for the teens when they went missing.

"The community responded wonderfully in the sense of coming together to help search for the kids," he said.

Hundreds of people from all over the region began searching for the group early Saturday morning.

"In these small towns, everybody's family," said one woman, who stopped by the man-made vigil.

But the community's greatest fears became reality when the four were discovered Monday afternoon.  Now the entire Jasper-Troupsberg family is coming together to remember and cope.

"It's going to be hard getting over this," Haines said. "I'm always going to remember them as my friends, so I guess that's how it's going to have to be."