Tishomingo residents struggle to deal with deaths of six high school students

TISHOMINGO — The little makeshift memorial to six teenage girls killed here in a violent collision Tuesday included a small cross on which hung two yellow flowers and a photo of Zay Kemp’s best friend. 

Kemp, 16, said he recently moved out of state from this city of about 3,000 people — the Chickasaw Nation Capitol and near the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge about 130 miles south of Oklahoma City — but returned to visit friends during spring break. 

“And then this hit,” Kemp said. 

He planted the small cross, with a photo of a teenage girl laughing as she sat inside a grocery cart. 

“They were happy girls, for sure,” he said. “They were a mood brightener. She was my best friend. I gotta go.”

Kemp returned to the passenger side of a pickup, where a local friend waited a few seconds before driving away from the memorial of flowers and candles set in the dusty center of what is known locally as “The Y,” or the intersection of U.S. 377 and State Highways 22 and 99.

What we know: A Tishomingo car crash left six high school girls dead

Makeshift memorials and murals reflect Tishomingo's grief

On Tuesday, the six girls, which included a 16-year-old driver, three 15-year-olds, and two 17-year-olds, were killed while riding in a 2015 Chevrolet Spark, which can only officially seat four people. 

Only the driver and a front-seat passenger were wearing seat belts, according to an investigating Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper's report.

Patrol officials said they were not releasing the names of the students who died in the accident because they were juveniles. 

Yet in this city known recently as country superstar Blake Shelton’s adopted hometown, the girls’ first names were written on the memorial and on spaces along Main Street, which is lined now with lowered American flags, the red-black-and-white colors of Tishomingo High School, and other symbols of this grieving yet gritty community.

Black letters spelling “Tishomingo Strong” hung on the marquee of The Indie Cinema.

At the request of a customer, artists Linda Shea and Julie Sisson came here from nearby Kingston — where they were busy cleaning up after a tornado Monday left behind a quarter-mile-wide path of damage — to paint hearts and other tokens of love for the girls, their families and this community. 

“I didn’t know any of the girls, but we feel for the family and want them to know the town is thinking of them, and we want to honor their memories,” Sisson said. 

Investigation of fatal Tishomingo crash could take weeks

The Highway Patrol continues to investigate the fatal crash. The agency’s Traffic Homicide Unit is conducting an investigation that could last weeks as investigators comb through witness statements, event data recorders and any video that surfaces, officials said. 

The agency said the National Transportation Safety Board is sending five investigators to work in coordination with Highway Patrol troopers. 

The crash occurred just before 12:20 p.m. Tuesday when the girls' car collided with a Peterbilt tractor-trailer. 

The crash report, released Wednesday morning, said the circumstances of the wreck remained under investigation. But Trooper Shelby Humphrey said Tuesday night that the girls' car was making a right turn when it collided with the truck, KXII-TV reported.

The other person involved in the accident, the driver of the tractor-trailer, was uninjured, according to a Highway Patrol trooper's report.

The condition of the truck driver and the 16-year-old driver at the time of accident, along with the cause for the collision, are being investigated by the Highway Patrol. Local law enforcement, fire departments and the Johnston County sheriff's office also have assisted the patrol with the case.

'This will impact this community for a long time'

Holding back tears, Johnston County Sheriff Gary Dodd, wearing a cowboy hat and his service weapon holstered on his right hip, told The Oklahoman his deputies had to inform the girls’ families of the tragedy. 

“It’s rough,” Dodd said. “In 22 years, I’ve seen a lot of stuff — critical incidents, shootings. We do see a lot of death, unfortunately, but to see children that have suffered that type of trauma, it’s raw. It hurts, no matter who you are. To lose six in one scene is an absolute travesty.

"This will have a lifelong effect on their families and friends. This will impact this community for a long time.”

Indeed, Tishomingo Schools Superintendent Bobby Waitman previously told The Oklahoman: “We're just praying for strength, praying for grace and for our students and their families." 

Taking a break from work at a Main Street diner, Reese Rickley, 19, sat in a booth and recalled one of her friends killed in the crash. 

“She was a bright soul, happy and contagious,” Rickley said. “She was one of the kindest souls I knew.”

Rickley said Tishomingo is a town where “if someone needs something, anyone is willing to help.”

Rickley said she happened to be serving a group of first responders Tuesday just before the fatal collision. She heard the sirens of emergency crews. Later, a friend contacted her and said “sorry for your loss.”

That’s when she learned who died just down the road from the diner. 

Life is short, Rickley said, before offering advice to those families: “You need to hold them a little closer at night.”