A Michigan mother is mourning one teenage daughter while keeping vigil at the hospital bedside of another after a predawn crash killed two students and left three others critically hurt.
Jordyn Bigham, 15, and a 16-year-old student were pronounced dead at the scene on West R Avenue in rural Kalamazoo County around 3:23 a.m. Sunday, according to police and school officials. Bigham’s 16-year-old sister, Jadisson “Jada” Bigham, survived but was hospitalized in critical condition, alongside two other friends — ages 15 and 17 — who were listed as critical but stable.
All five were students at Mattawan High School, a school of just over 1,100 students in a small city of roughly 2,500 people about 60 miles south of Grand Rapids. The vehicle had been traveling west when it left the roadway and struck a tree, investigators said. It was not immediately clear who was driving or where the group was heading.
Jada faces a “difficult road to recovery ahead, requiring extensive medical treatments, surgeries, and ongoing care,” according to a fundraiser started by her family.
“Their mother is now carrying a heavy burden that no parent should ever have to face: mourning the loss of one daughter while standing by the hospital bed of another.”
One of the other injured students was identified by her father as Liyra Fuller in a separate online fundraiser.
Mattawan Consolidated School District Superintendent Randy Fleenor spoke to WZZM about the community’s response in the aftermath.
“Just to know that we’re not alone, that we’re all in this together, and means a great deal to the students here and the staff that know these kids,” Fleenor said.
“Everybody grieves differently, and you really see that after an incident this traumatic. Some students hold it in; they don’t want to talk to anybody initially. Days later, weeks later, it may surface,” Fleenor continued.
A vigil was held Monday night in Mattawan High School’s parking lot as the community grappled with the loss. A makeshift memorial of flowers and balloons marks the site where the vehicle struck the tree.
The crash drew coverage from multiple Michigan outlets including WOOD-TV and WZZM as details emerged about the victims and the circumstances of the single-vehicle accident.