It was a beautiful fall day, a Friday and homecoming day to boot. A day for a nice ride.
Alta High students Heather Bledsoe, Tom Duke, Gio Castaneda and J B Brown gave into the temptation. They decided to cut sixth period and go for a ride in Bledsoe's father's red Porsche.April Miller had been invited to go along. "Heather said, `Come on, you guys, I got my dad's Porsche,' " Millersaid. "I couldn't sluff, so I said `no.' " Portia Taylor had also been invited. "I told Heather to meet me at my locker. She never did," Taylor said.
Bledsoe did meet up with Duke, Castaneda and Brown shortly after 1 p.m. The four slipped out of school, piled into the Bledsoe car and went for a ride.
The three boys were killed when the Porsche, going east at an "excessive" rate of speed, lost control near 2400 East on Dimple Dell Drive (10660 South) about 1:10 p.m., said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Robinson.
After skidding for about 250 feet, the car struck a portable concrete barrier. "We suspect the gas tank ruptured and exploded," Robinson said. The car was engulfed in flames.
The boys, two in the back and one in the front, were trapped in the car, Robinson said. Bledsoe managed to escape the inferno and was taken to Alta View Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries.
Word got back to Alta High almost immediately. Several students jumped in their cars and raced to the scene to find out what happened to their friends.
"Matt and Ryan came back and they were both crying real bad," said student Kim Kelso. "They said they had gotten in a wreck and it was real bad. Three out of the four had died."
Distraught students drove to Alta View Hospital. They wanted to give blood and they wanted to know more about their friends. An Alta High vice principal and the Salt Lake County youth officer assigned to the school went to the hospital to calm the students.
"They made them call their folks and tell them what had happened. And they made them promise their folks they would be coming home soon," said principal Doug Anderson.
Back at the school, word of the tragedy spread through the football stands during the homecoming game. "By the time halftime was over, it was pretty well understood in the stands what had happened," Anderson said.
Faculty and students reeled from news of the tragedy. It hit the wrestling coaches particularly hard. Tom Duke, a senior, was on the varsity wrestling team. He had lettered in the sport.
"He was my boy," said coach Mitch Lunak. He and coach Brad Pino had grown close to Duke during the months of practice traveling to "away" wrestling meets.
"Wrestling was his life. That's all he did," said Pino.
"He was a carefree kid who liked everything and everybody," Lunak said. "That's what made him so likeable. There are very few kids that come through a school that you get close to. We were both close to Tom."
If Duke's love was wrestling, Gio Castaneda's passion was soccer. The junior was on the school's soccer team and "a really good soccer play," said friend Kim Kelso.
Like Duke, Castaneda was an exceptionally friendly boy. "He'd say hi to everybody," Kelso said.
"He was a really good friend to everybody," said Cynthia Sisam. "He never had a bad word to say about anybody."
J B Brown was a quiet boy who loved camping, said friend Portia Taylor. She, too, cited his warmth and affability.
Alta went ahead with its homecoming dance Friday night, though Anderson expected the mood to be subdued. "If we had school in the morning we would have a lot more serious problems (with grieving students) than we'll have on Monday. I anticipate we'll have more problems on the day of the funeral than on Monday," he said.
Anderson has had too much practice at assessing the resiliency of his students. Alta High students have been repeatedly hit by tragedy in the past year.
A year ago, four Alta High students were killed in a car accident near Jackson, Wyo., while vacationing with the family of two of the victims.
Last spring, the school's football captain committed suicide.
"Essentially, you drive on," Anderson said.
That will be hard for many to do.
"I don't rightly know what I'll say to the wrestling team," Lunak said. "It will be hard to stand up in front of them and talk about it."