'Bigger than life': The almost unspeakable loss of 3 young people in Fredericton crash
CBC
Families, friends and fellow students are mourning the deaths of three people — two high schoolers and a young father — who died in a car crash in Fredericton on Sunday.
The victims have been identified by their families as Layla Rodgerson, 14, Owen Fairweather, 17, and Kyler Hunter-Astle, 22. Two other teenagers, whose names have not been released, were injured in the crash, one seriously.
Rodgerson and Fairweather attended Leo Hayes High School on the north side of Fredericton, one of the city's two anglophone high schools.
Hunter-Astle was the father of two young children.
The crash, which happened on Douglas Avenue at about 1 a.m. Sunday, is still under investigation by police, who have said speed was a factor, but they have not said who was driving or how the crash happened.
The deaths have rocked the community, prompting support for affected students and public condolences from local MLAs and Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers.
Rodgerson will be remembered as an energetic, gregarious teenager, who had a strong sense of independence, her mother, Becky Arseneault, said in an interview.
"Layla was bigger than life. She was brave and she was brilliant, and she was bold. And she loved big and she hurt hard, and anybody that was special to her, you knew that you were special to her."
Arseneault said her daughter was born and raised in Fredericton and was just finishing her first year at Leo Hayes High School as a Grade 9 student.
Older and more mature in spirit since she was a child, Arseneault said, Layla couldn't wait to get to high school and had already been looking ahead to getting her driver's licence.
Arseneault said her daughter was also driven to be as independent as she could be, pushing to get her first job at Dairy Queen at just 13 years old. More recently, she worked at Mary Brown's Chicken on Douglas Avenue at Brookside Drive, where Arseneault said she was loved by her co-workers.
"Layla was driven. She certainly let us know what she wanted and, yeah, I have no doubts that Layla could have been anything that she wanted to be."
Fairweather will be remembered as an intelligent kid with a passion for motorcycles and mechanics, his parents, Donald Fairweather and April Thorne, said in an interview.
"He was more mature than what he should have been for his age," Fairweather said.
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