Students at East Windsor High School returned to an emotional day of class on Tuesday, just days after one of their classmates was killed in a car crash over the weekend.
Brooke Wormstedt, a 15-year-old sophomore at East Windsor High, was one of two people who died on Saturday after the SUV she was in with four other teens slammed into a tree on Abbe Road in South Windsor.
Wormstedt’s friends said they can’t believe they’ll never see the 15-year-old again.
“It’s a gloomy mood around town right now,” Ryan Bagdikian, a senior at East Windsor High, said. “She was an understanding person. She was a loving person and she will be dearly missed.”
“It’s still hard to believe,” said Nick Fernandez, who is also a senior at the school.
East Windsor superintendent Theresa Kane said grief counselors will be at the high school “for as long as students need,” to help them cope with the tragedy.
Bagdikian said Wormstedt was on the school’s track team and was a javelin thrower.
Bagdikian was with a friend when the fatal accident happened on Saturday.
He said he drove by the scene, unaware that his friend had just died in the crash.
“We didn’t know exactly who had passed at the time, but when we found out, it was a sad thing,” he said.
Fernandez, meanwhile, said he’s still in shock and admits he didn’t know what to do when he was told Wormstedt died.
“I almost cried right then and there,” he said.
As friends and family continue to grieve over the sudden passing of Brooke Wormstedt, Bagdikian said the teen’s hometown of East Windsor will deal with the tragedy the only way they know how.
“I think we’re going to be more tight-knit. It’s a small town and I think we’ll come together in the end.”
The other victim killed in the crash was Matthew Masse. The 18-year-old was a student in Vernon.
Photo Credit: NBCConnecticut.com