Friends remember 3 A&T students killed
From left, Tiffany Helene Kittrell, Carla Marie Marshall and Lynai Bree Thorne, all A&T students who grew up in Raeford in southeastern North Carolina.
GREENSBORO — Half asleep, 19-year-old N.C. A&T sophomore Bryan Robinson ignored the first buzz of his phone late Tuesday night.
When he finally answered, he was shocked by the news: his friend Tiffany Kittrell was dead.
Soon after, he learned that two more A&T students, Lynai Thorne and Carla Marshall, also died in the car accident.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “It’s not something you wake up to everyday. I thought she [the friend who called] was asking to borrow a book or something.”
Kittrell, Thorne and Marshall, friends who grew up together in Raeford, died at the site of a single-car accident on U.S. 421 about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. They were all 19.
Speed is believed to be a factor in the accident, Sgt. A.W. Waddell with the Highway Patrol said. Waddell said the 1995 Honda driven by Marshall was traveling north, before she lost control of the car near N.C. 62 and hit a tree. There was no evidence alcohol was involved. Waddell said Marshall was wearing a seatbelt, but it is possible the others were not because they were thrown from the car.
Julian resident Donna Johnson viewed the scene Wednesday where the three people were killed Tuesday about 14 miles south of Greensboro.
Friends of the victims said the students were returning from a trip to Fayetteville, where they had gone to drop off Kittrell’s godson. Raeford is in Hoke County, near Fayetteville.
“They made it all that way and couldn’t make it back here,” Robinson said. “It’s just terrible.”
Kittrell, a freshman majoring in criminal justice, was the outspoken one, never shy when it came to doing introductions, he said.
As she was hunting for a job, she kept her friends in mind, picking up extra job applications when she went out.
“She found a job first and let me know” about the opportunity, said Shonda Fisher, a sophomore at A&T.
Shatoya Owens remembers Kittrell and a group of friends going to the home football game against Hampton University on Sept. 15. “She was always a positive person,” Owens said, “even when we were losing.”
Car parts lay against a tree trunk at the scene Wednesday where the three people were killed.
Thorne, a freshman who hadn’t declared a major, was the quiet, laid-back one, said hometown friend Sandra Bratcher, a sophomore at A&T. She was also very athletic, having played on her high school volleyball, softball and basketball teams.
“She was the one who always made everybody laugh,” Bratcher said. “She was fun to be around. You couldn’t really be mad around Lynai, she wouldn’t let you. Even if you needed to talk or vent, she was there.”
Marshall was also athletic, having played basketball and volleyball in high school. A sophomore, she was outgoing and rambunctious, Bratcher said.
“She wanted everyone to have fun. ... She never really wanted to sit around.”
Marshall just got her car about a month ago and was “talking about tinting the windows and getting a system,” Bratcher said.
Chaola Simmons, who knew the women, clutched framed photographs of her friends as she remembered them.
“They were more than friends to me. They were my sisters,” she said, fighting tears.
“I’ll never forget them, all the memories we shared. I love and miss them.”
University counselors are available to students who may be grieving. About 70 students gathered Wednesday afternoon in a classroom in Aggie Village — where at least one of the victims lived –– to share their feelings.
Counselors tried to answer questions, provide a safe place where students can come and urged students to rely on friends, family and faith, said Chandra Caple, a university counselor.
“For some of them, this is the first time they’ve experienced grief,” she said.
Waddell said the four-lane divided highway of U.S. 421 is no worse, nor any better, than any other road in Guilford County for accidents. He said relatively few wrecks occur on the stretch leading into Greensboro.
A set of tire tracks remained Wednesday afternoon from the left northbound lanes across the road and into a grassy shoulder. The marks disappeared from there as debris littered a steep slope into the woods lining the highway. The car was split in half from the impact of hitting the tree.
Friends of the victims are having a hard time realizing their friends aren’t coming back.
“It doesn’t seem real,” Fisher said on campus, as friends of the students gazed into the distance, looks of unbelief in their eyes.
“They say God takes the angels first,” Robinson said. “I guess this is another example of that happening.”
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Thursday, November 17th 2005 at 7:34PM
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