LOCAL

Community mourns loss of 3 teens

Former Oak Harbor honor students killed in 2-vehicle crash

Port Clinton News Herald

A driver and two of her passengers died Thursday after a two-vehicle crash near this intersection of Muddy Creek North and County Road 17, seen here, in Ottawa County.

OAK HARBOR - The Oak Harbor High School community is mourning the loss of three former students who died Thursday as the result of a two-vehicle crash in Salem Township.

Cora Roob, 19, Barbara Redfern, 18, and Joshua Coy, 19, were all former honor roll students and members of the Oak Harbor High School choir.

The three died after Roob’s 2007 Nissan Altima, with Redfern and Coy as passengers, stopped at a stop sign on Muddy Creek North Road and then pulled into the path of an eastbound truck on Oak Harbor Southeast, CR 17 at 10:48 a.m., according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.

More:3 killed in crash near Oak Harbor

The driver of the 2017 Dodge Ram truck, Kenneth Recker, 47, of Port Clinton, was uninjured.

“It is with a heavy heart that the Benton-Carroll-Salem School District mourns the loss of three recent graduates yesterday in a car crash,” said Superintendent Guy Parmigian. “We extend our sympathies to the family and friends of these young people.”

A GoFundMe campaign was launched to help cover the expenses of Barbara Redfern’s funeral, which has raised over $2,100 thus far.

An outpouring of support for the teens has been shared across social media.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cora Roob, Joshua Coy, Barbie Redfern and all of their family and friends,” a post from the Oak Harbor Rockets Band stated. “This is a most profound tragedy, and our hearts go out to everyone struggling with this unexplainable loss.”

Both Roob and Coy were members of the Oak Harbor Thespians, the high school’s drama club, appearing in productions such as the 2014 fall play, “Altar Egos: The I Do’s And Don’ts of an American Wedding,” their senior year.

“Barbie” Redfern, a 2017 graduate at Oak Harbor, was enrolled at Columbus State, where she was set to study aviation engineering.

A GoFundMe campaign was launched to help cover the expenses of Redfern’s funeral, which has raised over $2,100 as of Friday afternoon.

The school district also invited any current students or staff members who may want to talk with a counselor to do so by calling Oak Harbor High School at 419-898-6216 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“It’s a real tragedy. They were way too young,” Parmigian said.

jstinchcom@gannett.com

419-680-4897

Twitter: @JonDBN