A New York father learned in a most heartbreaking way that his two daughters were dead.
Brian Trumble of Fulton, N.Y., discovered that Hailey, 19, and her 17-year-old sister Shelby were killed in a car crash in Cayuga County after he used an app to locate their phones.
The deadly crash occurred on Aug. 1 in the town of Ira, 45 kilometres northwest of Syracuse, where the sisters were driving when their car “crested a hill and crossed into the opposite lane, striking a second vehicle,” according to Monday’s news release from the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office.
“Both Hailey and Shelby Trumble died as a result of the injuries they sustained at the time of this crash,” the sheriff’s office stated.
The other driver, a 59-year-old woman, was “transported to Syracuse University Hospital with serious injuries where she remains in stable condition.”
Trumble told Syracuse.com that he had texted his daughters several times the day of the crash when they didn’t return home from an amusement park outing in Rochester.
He said he used the Find My Friends app to track down their phones’ location and when he saw where they were, he drove to the town.
That’s where deputies, who had already shut down the area, met with the dad to break the news.
“It’s a tremendous loss,” he told the outlet. “It’s never going to be the same again.”
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The Hannibal Central School District, from which both sisters graduated high school, wrote: “This is an incredibly sad day for our students, faculty, and colleagues, and a tremendous loss for the entire community.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the girls’ father and older brother Riley pay for funeral expenses and the girls’ unforeseen medical bills, which has raised more than $37,000 as of time of publication.
“In this devastating incident, the Trumble family lost two girls at one time as daughters, sisters, granddaughters, and nieces,” read the fundraiser’s message.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your kindness, love, and support during this heart wrenching time.”
The cause of the crash remains unknown. The investigation is ongoing.