Hundreds Gather To Remember Two Teens Who Lost Their Lives In Fatal Car Accident

NETTLETON. Miss. (WCBI)- The city of Nettleton is rallying together after a devastating tragedy struck the community over the weekend.

Emotions were running high during Monday night’s prayer vigil as hundreds gathered to honor and remember two teenagers who lost their lives in a fatal car accident.

“It’s almost like it can’t happen you know? I think they’re gone way too soon,” said George Self, a junior at NHS, and one of the hundreds in attendance on Monday.

As candles burned and tears filled the faces of many in attendance, everyone held and comforted one another as they mourned the loss of two of their own, 18-year-old Margaret Riley and 17-year-old Brandon Coward.

“I think this definitely is a life gone too early,” said Monica Lorick, Riley’s tennis coach. “She just had so much potential and I could foresee her doing great things.”

The young couple were students at NHS.

Those close to Riley describe her as a sweet and loving person who always kept a bright smile on her face.

She was going into her senior year of high school and was a standout on the tennis team.

“This was her year in tennis, she was going to make it to state,” Lorick expressed.

Lorick said Riley was one of her top players. The two shared a close bond both on and off the court.

“She would always call me her school mama,” Lorick recalled. “We just had a lot of time spent together. She was always writing me notes, and would leave them on my desk and I’d find them a period or a day later, just little notes everywhere. I’d find random pictures of selfies that she had taken on my phone.”

“Brandon, he was that guy who would always try to make you laugh,” Self described. “If you’re having a bad day, he wasn’t one of those guys who would sit back in the back of the classroom and let you have a bad day. He was always going to try and joke around with you and brighten up your day.”

Coward was heading into his junior year of high school. He played on the basketball team and was a new member of the Union Volunteer Fire Department.

The two lost their lives in a car accident near Plantersville on Saturday night.

According to the Mississippi Highway Patrol, their vehicle left Highway 6 and struck a tree.

MHP said Riley was driving 2003 Chevrolet truck, heading east, when she lost control of the vehicle.

The fatal accident remains under investigation.

The funerals for the two teens will take place on Wednesday.