Middleburg Students Honor Friend Killed In Crash

[Dodge_Sniper]

Sorry for posting in the other thread, didn't see this article until tonight.

Middleburg Students Honor Friend Killed In Crash - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville

MIDDLEBURG, Fla. -- Students at Middleburg High School gathered Thursday to honor a classmate who died in a car crash one year ago.

Sixteen-year-old Katie Ray was one of three people killed in a chain-reaction crash at the intersection of County Road 215 and Santa Clara Avenue on Nov. 8, 2006.

Investigators said the driver of the car Ray was riding in ran a stop sign, causing the fatal wreck.

This tree, grown from a acorn that fell from Jacksonville's historic Treaty Oak, is now a living memorial to a 16-year-old Middleburg High School student killed one year ago in a car crash.

In addition to Ray, also killed were Jeffrey Spear, 42, and his daughter, 7-year-old Christi Spear, also of Middleburg, who were traveling in another truck.

Former classmates and family members gathered Thursday to dedicate a special oak tree in Katie's honor.

Katie would have graduated at the end of this school year. A plaque now sits in a place where Katie once walked.

Her mother, Leah Ray, said she is touched that her daughter's teenage friends remember.

"I'm very grateful that they did it," Leah Ray said. "I knew she was loved, but from her funeral to this, everybody will not let her be forgotten."

The tree dedicated to Katie grew from an acorn that fell from Treaty Oak in downtown Jacksonville. The organizers hope the tree will provide comfort to the students at Middleburg High.

"I just hope every time you go outside and look at the sun, you see the rays on the ground and you think of her," a Middleburg student who helped organize the memorial told Channel 4's Ashley Townsend.

Katie's younger sister, Taylor, plans to stand in the shade of the tree when it's her turn to attend Middleburg High.

"She was a great sister," Taylor Ray said. "She was always nice and she helped me a lot."

For her mother, the past year has been a roller coaster. Leah Ray said she still can't believe Katie's not coming home.

"I'll just want to check her room. Her flowers are still there. I know she's gone. There's nothing I can do; it's out of our hands," Leah Ray said. "We'll see her one day."

Her friends initiated the project to plant the tree so they can always remember Katie's smile.

"She's the most amazing person I've ever met," one of Katie's friends said at Thursday's service.

"Katie was the first person that was so nice to me when I first moved here," another said.

The Florida Highway Patrol arrested the driver, Edward Abruscato, 40, in February on three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of reckless driving.

I'm glad to see this asshole is finally in jail, where he belongs.

 

[Breath]

Justice is served.
It's a tribute to you and to her memory that you followed through with her story. Every woman should have someone like you to remember her.

 

[Dodge_Sniper]

Justice is served.
It's a tribute to you and to her memory that you followed through with her story. Every woman should have someone like you to remember her.

Thanks Just wanted to update everybody on this.

It definately means a lot to me, as well as everybody else that this guy goes to jail for what he did. He lived at the same house for almost 5 years, and just "forgets" the stop sign was there because he was too drunk to remember. I'm glad to see our school did this for her, she was a really amazing girl, and she was friends with almost everybody. Even the freshman this year that weren't here last year knew about her and everything. She touched a lot of lives, no doubt

 

[Sneakiecat]

I caught this on the news this morning. I didn't realize it had been a year already.

 

[Dodge_Sniper]

Oh yeah. It went by rather fast, but at the same time, it seems like it's been so much longer than a year.

 

[Sneakiecat]

I know that feeling all too well.