Students Pack Wetumpka High School Auditorium to Remember Classmates
Three Wetumpka High School teenagers are dead following a car wreck in Elmore County last night. And as you can imagine, their classmates aren’t taking the news well. A vigil was held tonight at the high school to remember the victims and to show support for those they left behind.
There was not a dry eye in the Wetumpka High School auditorium Monday evening as students gathered to remember three of their loved ones. Austin Ryan Augustine, Dylan Adler Bieber, and Hoyt Elliot Hardin, all 16, were all killed over the weekend in a car wreck.
“Anything that happens in the community, we always come together and we support one another,” says student Amber Jones. She tells us she played basketball with Austin.
“He was just a really caring and loving person, no matter how you joked, he never took it to heart. He was just a really fun person to be around.”
Hugs were shared and students offered each other a shoulder to lean on while they tried to cope with their loss. Ministers, counselors, teachers and volunteers offered prayer and support to all grieving students.
“It’s very early in the grieving process but we want to just come and encourage them, give them some support and also to give them some real hope in the truth of God’s word,” says First Baptist Church of Wetumpka Minister Bart Teel.
“Austin was on the basketball team and he was a great basketball player and I liked playing basketball with him and stuff like that,” says Davie Arrington.
Student Leah Hill knew all of the boys but says she was closest with Dylan.
“They all have different personalities,” she says. “Hoyt loves to lift weights, he likes being big. Austin loved playing basketball. Dylan just loved being himself. “
There was one other passenger in that car. 16-year-old Nicholas Benjamin of Eclectic survived the crash and is at Baptist South with life threatening injuries. Students are praying for him to pull through.
50-year old Elmore County Deputy James Bart Hart was also killed when his car collided with the car the teenagers were in.
