Friends and family are stunned by loss

LEICESTER -- Three young men stood motionless by a solitary tree yesterday afternoon on River Street. The tree looked like thousands of others in front of thousands of other homes across New England.

But it stood out because dozens of flowers lay against it and a section of bark was missing, evidence of a tragic event: the vehicular death of four teenagers and the critical injury of a fifth.

In Central Massachusetts yesterday, four families mourned the loss of their children . Courtney Butcher's relatives held each other close as they stood in front of their Worcester home. A young woman, identified only as the cousin of the 18-year-old University of New Hampshire student , wearily held out a picture of her kin.

No one spoke. Less than a mile from the accident, the family of Nathan Plaza, 17, welcomed friends and family during the afternoon hours. Young boys in soccer uniforms, parents in tow, strolled down the long, winding driveway in Leicester.

At the accident scene, Plaza's friends and soccer teammates, 18-year-olds Mike Pizzarella and Adam Walsh and 17-year-old Jeff Russell, stood still, stunned by their loss. They said in near unison that they had not slept since a 3 a.m. phone call yesterday told them their friend was killed in a crash a little more than three hours before.

" It hasn't really hit yet," said Pizzarella. "It's unbelievable . . . I can't imagine his parents. It must be the hardest thing in life."

Across town, Joe and Cheryl Rossik were at home, with their son's friends' cars still parked in the driveway.

Joe Rossik said his son, Bryan, 17, was his best friend. "Our relationship with him is we were the same, we were stubborn, we butted heads, but we loved each other so, so much and that's why this hurts so, so bad," the 18-year career firefighter said as he held back tears.

Bryan Rossik had just been accepted to Assumption College in Worcester on a scholarship, said Cheryl Rossik. Her oldest son was going to be a doctor. His brothers, Patrick, 15, and Nicholas, 11, are devastated, their parents said.

Cheryl Rossik petted the family dog . Joe Rossik took out the trash with a sigh. "He was a good friend," Rossik said of his son.

Several miles away at the home of crash victim Julianne Caron, 18, in North Brookfield, a man and a woman sat in the parlor.

The woman faced the door as if she were waiting for someone to come through.

The man answered the door and, looking down, said his insides had been ripped out. He said he was in no shape to say more.