Meanwhile, the two survivors pulled from the burning wreckage, who also are SCI-Benedictine students, continued to recuperate Monday at Memorial Medical Center.
McCarty was killed along with Katherine L. “Katie” Carpentier, 15, of Lincoln; Ross B. Conrady, 18, of Elkhart; and Christopher J. McGlasson, 19, of Middletown.
Conrady and Carpentier were a senior and a sophomore at Lincoln Community High School, respectively, and McGlasson was a 2006 graduate of LCHS.
Logan County Coroner Bob Thomas said Tuesday afternoon that the teens died of "blunt force trauma."
“We think they all passed by the time the fire broke out,” Thomas said.
The cause of death remains preliminary, he noted, and an inquest will take place pending pathology reports and results of Illinois State Police’s crash reconstruction.
Thomas also said toxicology tests are being run on all four victims.
“I could not tell if alcohol played a role,” he said. Police say there was no immediate indicatation alcohol was a factor.
SCI/Benedictine’s service for McCarty was scheduled for noon today at Marguerite Matthews Chapel in Dawson Hall on the school’s campus. Msgr. Thomas Holinga of St. Joseph Church in Springfield will lead the service.
The four teens were killed when the extended-cab pickup they were in hit a tree and caught fire at the bottom of a curved stretch of road near where 1300th Street crosses Polecat Hill just east of Middletown.
The two survivors, Zach Rickord and Clark Schoonover, are both Lincoln Community High graduates. Rickord was listed in serious condition at Memorial on Monday night, while Schoonover was in fair condition.
They were pulled to safety by Mike Boyer, who with his wife came upon the accident scene as they were returning from a basketball game in Lincoln to their home on a farm near Middleton.
“My wife said she spotted little flames coming from beneath the truck. My wife called 911, and that’s when I noticed one of the boys yelling for help,” Boyer told the Bloomington Pantagraph.
Boyer said he then went to the truck and pulled Schoonover out from the driver’s side window and laid him on the ground. At that point, another motorist stopped, and Boyer asked him to go get a fire extinguisher.
“There was an unbelievable amount of smoke inside the cab, and I began to see flames lapping up from the floorboard,” he told the Pantagraph.
Boyer said that after he pulled Rickord from a passenger side window, the entire truck was quickly engulfed in flames.
“I thought maybe there was another one or two still in the truck, but I never would have thought there were six people riding in the truck,” he said.
“Maybe — I don’t know if those kids were alive in that truck — but if I had had a fire extinguisher, then we’d know.”
On Monday evening, a candlelight vigil followed by a caravan to the accident site was planned at Lincoln Community High. But snowy conditions and poor visibility prompted school officials to cancel the event at the school.
More than 100 people, mainly teenagers, made the trek to Polecat Hill anyway. The crowd gathered near four crosses erected for the victims, held candles and prayed for the deceased, as well as for Rickord and Schoonover.
A remembrance blog has been set up at http://friendsgonebutnotforgotten.blogspot.com, where friends have shared photograph slideshows and memorial plans, including special ribbons to wear at school and bumper stickers.
Also Monday, funeral arrangements were released for Conrady and McGlasson.
Conrady’s visitation will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lincoln Community High followed by a funeral at 10 a.m. Thursday at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lincoln.
Visitation for McGlasson will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Jefferson Street Christian Church in Lincoln followed by a funeral service at the church at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
An entry on the blog from the Carpentier family indicated a memorial service will be held for Carpentier from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Jefferson Street Christian Church. Open visitation will be from noon until 2 p.m., and the memorial will be from 2 to 3 p.m."
http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/25477.asp
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