Thursday, 4:30 PM
Crash victim expected best of times
By Maria Cramer, GLOBE STAFF
Courtney Butcher could not wait to get home to Worcester for the weekend. The University of New Hampshire freshman was excited to see old friends, visit her large family, and watch Sunday’s game between the Red Sox and Yankees from seats on Fenway Park’s Green Monster.
"This is going to be the best weekend," the 18-year-old had told her mother, Kathleen Dalve, days before she last saw her. "'I’m so looking forward to this.'"
Dalve, 48, recalled her daughter’s excitement Sunday as she planned the funeral for the basketball standout and 2006 graduate of Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, who was killed in a car crash along with three other teenagers late Friday in Leicester. Another teenager in the car was injured.
The accident, which relatives believe occurred as the group rushed to beat a midnight curfew, has shattered the small, close-knit towns of Leicester and North Brookfield, where most of the victims lived. It was among the deadliest crashes in the state in the past 20 years.
Less than 24 hours later, Jonathan Lilly , a 17-year-old senior at Pembroke High School apparently was speeding on Center Street when he crashed his car into a telephone pole and then a tree, Pembroke police said Sunday. Lally was pronounced dead at Brockton Hospital.
Lally was the seventh person killed during the weekend in four separate motor vehicle accidents in which police said speed may have been a factor. Alfred F. Nigro , 41, of Northbridge, was killed early Friday when he lost control of his 2002 Jeep Liberty while driving north on Route 146 in Millbury.
Early Saturday, Ivan D. Dimitrov , 20, a Bulgarian national and MIT student, was killed after he lost control of his motorcycle on Storrow Drive in Boston.
Butcher was killed Friday when the driver of the 2007 Toyota Scion, 17-year-old Nathan Plaza, of Leicester, slammed into a tree. Also killed in the accident were Bryan Rossik, 17, of Leicester, and Julianne "Julie" Caron , 18, of North Brookfield.
The fifth teenager, Lauren Bennett, 17, of North Brookfield, broke her clavicle and was in stable condition Sunday at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, her mother said. Bennett remained sedated Sunday, as doctors continued to monitor her for internal injuries or brain swelling, Paula Bennett said.
"No scars on her face. She looks beautiful," she said. "I’m pretty sure she’s going to be okay. She’s a lucky girl."
But Bennett said that her daughter has no idea that her friends are dead. One of them, Caron, had been her best friend since they were 4 years old. They played together on the basketball team at North Brookfield High School and had lamented what it might be like when they played against each other when they went to their respective colleges. Bennett is expected to attend Curry College in Milton this fall. Caron had been accepted at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Bennett said.
"They had a wonderful, wonderful friendship," she said.
Visitors have streamed to the hospital and sat with Bennett in the intensive care unit, her mother said.
Many of the young visitors were friends of the victims, and were particularly close to Caron, whose family declined to comment Sunday.
The visitors have taken comfort in keeping vigil over Bennett, her mother said.
"They needed to see the one that survived," Bennett said, "and tell her she needs to hang on, because Julie’s friends need Lauren to help them get through her death."
All five teenagers in the car, a 2007 Toyota Scion that was Plaza’s gift from his step-dad in advance of his expected graduation this spring from Leicester High School, had been wearing seat belts, police have said. None of them had been drinking, police said.
"I’m never going to put a curfew on my kids. I’ll just tell them to call when they’re going to be late," Dalve said. "They were a great, great group of kids. They were probably just laughing and enjoying themselves."
Dalve said she wanted her daughter to be remembered for her compassion, her love for her family, which includes two brothers and three sisters, and her devotion to her friends, particularly Rossik, who was her date for the senior prom. A scholarship will be set up in Butcher’s name at Doherty Memorial, Dalve said.
"She was my best friend," she said. "She was not just my daughter."
Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. David Abel of the Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent John Guilfoil contributed to this report.
