15th anniversary passes quietly in Cadiz

People say that time will heal all wounds. Perhaps that's true, but some people will always remember the night of Dec. 15, 1993.

Seven Trigg County boys were killed in a one-car crash on U.S. 68. It was one of the most horrific wrecks local reporters and police remember.

Dale Garner, Jeremy Gordon, David Lawrence, Jesse Lawrence, Patric Perry, Joey Rogers and Steven Wallace had piled into a red 1988 Honda Civic to drive about a mile up U.S. 68 to the Hilltop Market for their dinner break. The Trigg County teens worked at Knight and Hale, a game call manufacturer, part time. A few minutes after the boys left that evening, Hilltop employee Ruth Bridges saw an ambulance pass by.

Steven Wallace lost control of the Honda on U.S. 68, crossed the center line and hit an oncoming truck driven by Stephen Richardson, Wallace's girlfriend's father.

The scene that night was surreal. Seven teens' lives snuffed out 10 days before Christmas. I was a young reporter back then and covered the wreck. All Sun photographer Elizabeth Courtney and I knew was that a wreck near Cadiz had fatalities. We didn't know how bad it was until we arrived at the scene, and Kentucky State Police spokesman Chuck Robertson held us back for a few minutes and then took us to the site.

The bodies were removed by the time we arrived, but we could still see their books and cassette tapes strewn along the highway.

Fifteen years later, no public observances were planned. Former Cadiz Record sports editor Scott Brown, who drove then-Cadiz Record Editor Matt Sanders to the scene, said the families of the boys have had their own turmoil in the days since that fateful night. The families initially had formed the Seven Friends Foundation, but Brown said he doesn't believe the foundation still functions.

"They may do something on their own, but I don't think they have had any type of organized event since either the second or fifth anniversary," Brown said.

Still, it's a day many people in western Kentucky will remember.