Ride from stadium takes deadly turn

2 killed, 1 injured after car hits tree in Wrentham

State Police are investigating whether speed, drugs, or alcohol played a role in the Wrentham crash, temporarily shut Route 1. (Dina Rudick/ Globe Staff)

WRENTHAM - Bouquets of vivid flowers sat at the foot of a tree flanked by two white wooden crosses off Route 1. The tree, its bark splintered, was pocked with shattered glass in the afternoon light.

It was the site of a Saturday evening crash that killed two young women and injured another.

The three friends were on their way home from the New England Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium when at about 7 p.m. their car veered off Route 1 south near Myrtle Street and hit the tree, according to State Police and the victims' family members.

Two of a handful of bright balloons tied to a branch expressed sentiments of the women's friends and family: "You're special" and "Thinking of you."

Alexa Latteo, the 19-year-old driver, and Debra Alexa Davis, 20, the front-seat passenger, were declared dead at the scene. Nina Houlihan, 20, who was in the back seat, was airlifted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where she was recovering yesterday, said her father, John Houlihan.

State Police are investigating whether speed, drugs, or alcohol played a role in the crash, which shut down Route 1 for about an hour. The 2007 Pontiac G5 swerved off course as the road curved to the left, said Trooper Eric Benson. The women were found by one of several troopers patrolling the area because of the concert.

John Houlihan said his daughter was recovering from a broken pelvis.

"I don't know what I'd do without her," he said yesterday as he pulled into the driveway of his Norton home after spending the day at his daughter's bedside. He had given her the news about her friends' deaths.

Nina Houlihan, a junior majoring in communications at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, remembers the crash but "hasn't said much," her father said.

In Milton yesterday afternoon, friends and family gathered outside Davis's home. They said she worked as an assistant beautician at the Salon Marc Harris on Broad Street in Boston and had recently graduated from cosmetology school.

"Deb was the baby," said MaryAnn Davis, about the youngest of her three children, while sitting in her living room among relatives, including her husband and two other children.

Davis had a knack for cooking and loved treating her family to chicken scallopini and veal marsala, her relatives said.

Her passions were family, photography, and looking after their four dogs. "We loved her so much, and she loved life," said her grandmother, Nona Savini.

Davis, who had just cut her hair short in what her family called "Victoria Beckham" style, was dressed and ready to go to the stadium by 9 a.m., said her mother.

"She was so looking forward to it," she said. "They go every year."

The women were returning home after spending hours with other friends outside the stadium, because they didn't get tickets to the show, said MaryAnn Davis.

Debra Davis had talked to her parents periodically throughout the day, her mother said.

Outside Latteo's home in Mansfield yesterday, her uncle, Mark Shelley, said she had gone to Mansfield High School. In the fall, she was going to be a junior at Bridgewater State College, where she was studying to be a special education teacher. She loved working with children and looking after her three younger brothers. The family declined to comment further.

"I'd love to say wonderful things about her right now but it's too hard," said a woman who identified herself as Latteo's aunt.

At the scene of the accident yesterday, two young men stood looking at the tree and speaking quietly with each other. They declined to comment, saying it was too soon after the deaths to talk about the women.

Tire tracks in the mud marked the car's path off the highway and into the woods. It ended at the makeshift memorial, which included a woman's brown and gold sandal, a black cloth and the crosses, adorned with blue and purple ribbons.

Pieces of the car - glass, plastic, and a rearview mirror - lay scattered on the ground.

Jonnelle Marte can be reached at jmarte@globe.com.