Lakewood Ranch mourns for students killed in car crash

LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Hundreds of friends of Lakewood Ranch High School students Brendan Shreve, 17, and Jared Duran, 15, came to a candlelight vigil Sunday night held at a tree-side memorial of flowers and pictures near where the two boys died in a horrific early Saturday car crash.

Mourners parked their cars on Clubhouse Drive and walked to the memorial site on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.

Deputies with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office set up flairs on both sides of the boulevard to keep the mourners safe from traffic.

Judging by some of the heartfelt comments at the vigil and the never-ending procession of people to the memorial site, it seemed clear the boys' had impacted many in their short lives.

Chloe Brunwibaux, a sophomore, came to honor and grieve for Jared.

"Shock, sadness," Chloe said when asked what she has been going through since the one-vehicle crash that took the boys' lives. "It's really sad."

"He was always funny," Chloe added of Jared. "He was always making everyone laugh. He was honest about everything. He was always happy."

Daniel Hernandez, 13, an eighth-grader at Nolan Middle School, came with his father and put flowers on the memorial site.

"This is the first time I have experienced death," Daniel said. They were so young. They had a future. You never know when the end is near. You should always be thankful to have a brother or sister, a mom or dad, even a pet, It's made me realize you should just enjoy life with them because you never know. Only God knows."

Nolan Middle School was Daniel's connection to Jared.

"Both of them are really good friends with my cousin, Matthew and Jared used to go to Nolan," Daniel said. "When I was in sixth grade, he was in eighth. And since he knew I was Matthew's little cousin, he used to talk to me a lot like give me advice and everything. He would tell me to stay out of trouble.

"I knew Brendan, too," Daniel added. "One day I went to Summerfield Park, and we played soccer. He was really, really good at soccer," Daniel said "Jared was funny and he would always make jokes and Brendan, well he was kind of serious but he was still really nice."

Danielle Campbell taped pictures to the tree.

"Brendan was my boyfriend," Danielle said. "He was a really good person, and he didn't deserve to go this early. "I was a senior, and he was a junior. He was in soccer. Then he got into wrestling, and he went got out of that and then he started jiu jitsu recently. He really liked that. He won all the championships he went to.

"He had always told me, well, he has all these books on how to grow a business and become really wealthy and he always told me he was going to do that," Danielle said.

Danielle said she was with Brendan the night before the accident happened.

"I was with him the night it happened," Danielle said. "He and Jared had snuck out and come to my house, and the last thing I texted him was to make sure to text me before he came home so I would know he was safe. But I didn't get a response,"

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond.

This story was originally published October 11, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch mourns for students killed in car crash ."