Christina White, a typical teen

Ik houd ervan om ‘zomaar’ rond te rijden.
Een willekeurige weg in en dan eens kijken wat er te zien is.

Theodore Roosevelt Road in Golden Valley is een behoorlijke zandweg. Links de valley, rechts in de verte de bergen en daar tegenaan wat huizen.
Opeens links bij de kruising met Bolsa Drive een groot monument ter nagedachtenis van Christina White.
Kruisen, engelen, bloemen, poppen, beeldjes, frutsels.
Hier is echt werk van gemaakt.

Wat is hier gebeurd?
Met grote letters staat er A Young Woman Was Killed Here!
Een jonge vrouw van 17. Geboren in 1986, dood in 2003.

Vermoord, denk ik. Op een verlaten weg midden in de woestijn.
Hoe zou het gebeurd zijn en is de dader gepakt.

Uit de archieven van de Kingman Daily Miner blijkt iets anders.
Christopher Grimlend, 17, was driving a Honda motorcycle northbound on Teddy Roosevelt Boulevard with Christina White, 17, riding behind him as a passenger, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jarrod Lyman said.
Deputies responded to the accident call about 6:10 p.m. and found the Honda struck an eastbound sport utility vehicle at the intersection of Bolsa Road.
Both teenagers were airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas with White flown there by the Department of Public Safety air rescue helicopter based in Kingman.
White died of severe head trauma shortly after arriving at UMC, Lyman said.

“Christina was very popular. She was very clean and very pretty,” zegt haar vader een paar weken later tegen de krant.
Grootvader: “By today’s standards she was a typical teen,” he said. “When you talked to her you never knew what she was going to say, but she always believed in what she was saying.
“She was young, outgoing and honest.”

“The church was full of people. They were standing outside,” he said. “I have lived in Golden Valley nine years, and I have seen the valley changing. I have heard negative comments, but I realize people with community values are moving here.”
White said his granddaughter will live on through others.
“There are people alive today because of the tragedy,” he said.
“Christina’s organs were donated to others. Christina’s liver, pancreas and both kidneys were donated.
“She lives on. That is a gift to the family.”

Mooi, hè? En heel subtiel, dat over de ‘valley changing’ en de ‘negative comments’.
Het is niet echt heel sjiek daar namelijk.