Teens Hold Wake For Friends Tough Lives Remembered With Tender Stories
They were children who always had trouble finding their way home.
A tent in People’s Park often became home to Alicia Easterwood and Katie Campbell. John Rohloff occasionally showed up there too.
But on the way to that spot by the Spokane River early last Sunday, something went wrong.
In the few minutes it took to travel from a friend’s Peaceful Valley house to the park, driver James Vreen went off the road.
Campbell, Easterwood and Rohloff died instantly when Vreen’s 1986 Buick Regal plunged down a foggy hillside along Clarke Avenue. Two other friends in the car were injured, and Vreen was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault.
On Friday, the three victims were remembered by the friends who made them feel more at home than their own families.
Friends sat around at Crosswalk, a Spokane shelter for street kids, and told stories. Most talked openly but were unwilling to give their names.
At 14, Easterwood was described as a quiet, tough kid whose family life forced her out of the house.
“She was a delicate flower upon this earth,” reads a poem written by a friend at the shelter. “Peel back the petals and see her birth.”
Before her first day of high school, Easterwood gave up on God, declaring her unrelenting atheism to friends.
“There’s a lot that’s gone wrong in her life,” said a Crosswalk friend.
Her best friend was Campbell, a raven-haired beauty in her last year at District 81’s REAL school. The two met at a spot in People’s Park called “Arizona.”
Friends say the pair was uncompromisingly tight. Even Campbell’s longtime boyfriend, Kenny, hadn’t seen them apart more than twice.
Campbell had family that wanted her home, but she preferred her friends, Kenny said.
It seems fitting, he said solemnly, that when they were thrown from the car last Sunday, Easterwood and Campbell landed side by side.
“They were the best of friends in life. Now they’re best friends forever,” he said.
Some media reports after the crash said the six teens in the car were at a party before the accident.
Friend Kati Boucher says that’s not true. The group was at her Peaceful Valley home.
Two boys living with Boucher were waiting for a ride from Vreen. Rohloff and Vreen were cousins. They agreed to pick up the two boys at Campbell’s request.
The six had a plan. Catch a ride, pick up their gear, get some coffee, find a new place to squat.
Vreen is believed to have lost control of the car in thick fog about 12:20 a.m. last Sunday. It smashed through a guardrail, was launched down the hill, hit a large tree and a wooden power pole, said police reports.
Forty-five minutes later, Boucher got a call about the accident. On Friday, the memory made her cry.
Kenny, who had broken up with Campbell two weeks ago, woke up shaking uncontrollably the night after the crash.
He had a dream that he followed the car down the road and watched them die. Sitting straight up in bed, Kenny said he wanted to die.
“I kind of feel responsible,” he said. “If we wouldn’t have broken up, she would have been with me.”
It’s hard not to take the blame, they say. On the streets, your friends are all that protect you.
“Everyone downtown is family,” said a girl at Crosswalk. “One person gets hurt and everyone shows up.”
Since the accident, dozens of people have visited the crash site night after night.
On Monday, Kenny broke his skateboard deck in half to make headstones.
Then the group left a message in their own unique way. Spray-painted along Clarke Avenue for more than 1,500 feet are these messages of hope and sadness:
“Don’t Drive Drunk.”
“Gone but not forgotten.”
“We will remember.”
“See you on the other side.”
On Friday, they held a final vigil. Flowers covered the pavement like a garden.
“I’ve mourned in every way possible,” Kenny said. “I guess now it’ll just take a whole lot of time.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo