LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. – A community is in mourning after three Lincoln County High School students were killed in a crash early Sunday morning. Two others survived the wreck but are injured.
Investigators said the crash happened on South Chantilly Road, where this makeshift memorial continues to grow. Family members said they will be missed.
The teenagers who lost their lives around 4 p.m. Sunday all went to the same school in Troy, Missouri.
Three of the car’s occupants died at the scene: 15-year-old Kaeden Tyler, a 17-year-old girl, and 18-year-old William Flickinger. Another 17-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man were airlifted to a St. Louis hospital.
Tyler’s family is devastated.
“My nephew had a heart of gold. He loved animals. He would help anybody anytime,” said Jordan Reichert, Tyler’s aunt. “He loved shooting BB guns, and he was an amazing baseball player.”
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the 17-year-old female driver whose name has not been released, lost control of the vehicle.
“Preliminary investigation telling us that the vehicle was traveling too fast for the road conditions at the time, as the vehicle became airborne,” said Cpl. Dallas Thompson for MSHP. “When it landed, it became skidded off the roadway and struck a tree with the driver’s side.”
Tyler’s family said they will be making t-shirts to help raise funds to help pay for funeral expenses.
“Anytime we have anyone killed in a traffic crash, it’s terrible, but when we have three of the young people killed in a traffic crash like this,” Thompson said. “It not only affect them and their families, it affect the entire community.”