Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Pine Beach Police Chief John M. Sgro recalls the trauma of the day three young people died
Pine Beach Police Chief John M. Sgro was getting ready for work around 6:40 a.m. Feb. 3 when he heard the fire whistle blow. "Within five minutes, my phone started ringing," he said in an interview in his office Tuesday. "It's a bad sign." Sgro knew that a call right after the fire whistle meant one thing — bad news. Very bad news. "An officer called on the cell phone to tell me we had a car into the school," he said. That frigid Thursday turned out to be a day of trauma for Sgro and his small police department. It was the day that three young people died in a horrific crash, when their car careened into the brick east wall of the Pine Beach Elementary School. It's a day that none of them will forget, Sgro said. "I got dressed and went …
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Toxicology results found oxycodone and metabolized cocaine in all three victims
Preliminary toxicology tests from the Ocean County Medical Examiner's Office have confirmed the presence of oxycodone and metabolized cocaine in all three victims who died earlier this month when their car slammed into the Pine Beach Elementary School, Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said. However, the presence of the drugs found in all three does not mean that the use of illegal drugs was a factor in the Feb. 3 accident, she said. “The metabolized cocaine levels, I am advised by experts at the lab, is consistent with cocaine use two or three days prior to the accident," Ford said. "We cannot therefore conclude that use of that illegal drug was a factor in this accident. Test results also did not detect the presence of alcohol …
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Ocean County Prosecutor's Office waiting for a number of test results to come back
There won't be any speedy determination about the cause of the horrific crash that took the lives of three young people last week, the spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said. It was a week ago today that a car driven by Matthew R. Budesa, 20, struck the east wall of the Pine Beach Elementary School with such force that it ripped a six-by-six hole in the school's media center and crushed the engine section of the car. Budesa, the son of Pine Beach Councilman Robert Budesa, Kimberly Van Gorden, 20, of Beachwood, and Matthew Witzgall, 21, of Toms River, all died at the scene of multiple traumatic injuries, authorities have said. Investigators are waiting for the results of the accident reconstruction, any possible mechanical …
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Hundreds of mourners, young and old, waited in line to pay their respects to Matthew Budesa and his family
Chances are, it didn't matter to the hundreds of people who came to Matthew Ryan Budesa's wake Monday just how and why the car he was driving slammed into the Pine Beach Elementary School, killing him and two other friends late last week. What mattered was supporting Pine Beach Councilman Robert Budesa, his wife Linda and Matthew's three older brothers, Robert Jr., William and Michael. What mattered was saying goodbye to the bearded young man in his casket, now forever 20 years old. And if you entered the Anderson and Campbell Funeral Home on Main Street in Toms River by the front door Monday afternoon, you would have made a mistake. "Watch your step," said a woman who greeted people at the door. "The end of the line is down the hall." …
Beachwood resident remembered as smiling young woman
It was a solemn walk, through a lobby where 14 small ceramic angel figurines watched over an entryway and a dozen or so small birds flew from branch to branch in a glass birdcage display. And along the way, the friends and family of Kimberly A. Van Gorden embraced and reminisced. Mourners for Van Gorden, the 20 year-old Beachwood resident who died in a high-speed car crash into Pine Beach Elementary School Feb. 3, gathered at Carmona-Bolen Funeral Home on Main Street, Toms River on Tuesday. Many who came to celebrate her short life lined the chairs along the wall of the funeral home, sharing embraces, whispers, tears and joyful memories of Van Gorden. She was one of three who died in an automobile accident Feb. 3. Van Gorden, along with …
Monday, February 7, 2011
Rumors, speculation abound in fatal Pine Beach crash
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office is looking for anyone who may have information related to the horrific crash in Pine Beach that took the lives of three young people, including the son of a longtime borough councilman. The driver, Matthew R. Budesa, 20, Pine Beach; Kimberly A. Van Gorden, 20, Beachwood, and Matthew Witzgall, 21, Toms River, all died at the scene, after the 2011 Hyundai Accent slammed into the east wall of the Pine Beach Elementary School at a high rate of speed in the early morning darkness. People should call Detective John Hill, the lead investigator for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, at 732-929-2027, Ext. 3223, Deputy Chief of Detectives Michael Mohel said. Mohel also is the spokesman for the prosecutor's …
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friends, family gather at Winding River Park to honor those who died in horrific crash at Pine Beach Elemntary School
The young people stood stoically in the frigid air, shivering as they clutched lit votive candles in their hands. Some of the flames in the glass holders flickered and went out in the chill wind at Winding River Park. They stood quietly, awkward and unsure in the face of death and loss. They came to mourn their three friends - Matthew Budesa, Kimberly Gorden and Matthew Witzgall - who died together in a violent and puzzling car crash in the early morning hours of Feb. 3. "I'm speechless," a youth in a wheelchair whispered. Wendy Duffy, Beachwood, came with her daughter Krystena and son Michael Runke to honor the three who perished when a car driven by Budesa slammed into a brick wall at the Pine Beach Elementary School. "It's hard," she …
Friday, February 4, 2011
County investigators attempt to reconstruct accident that killed Pine Beach councilman's son, two others
Investigators from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office are still reconstructing just what happened during the early morning hours of Feb. 3, when a car driven by a councilman's son slammed into a brick wall at the Pine Beach Elementary School. The probe began yesterday morning, almost immediately after a tow truck removed the mangled 2011 Hyundai Accent - bundled up in a blue tarp - from the east parking lot of the elementary school on Pennsylvania Avenue. The driver, Matthew Budesa, 20, Pine Beach; Kimberly Van Gorden, 20, Beachwood; and Matthew Witzgall, 21, Toms River, all died at the scene, said Deputy Chief Detective Michael Mohel of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Budesa, a 2009 graduate of Toms River High School South, was …
Karen
10:42 am on Thursday, February 24, 2011
Such a heart wrenching story. One that is told differently depending on what channel you watch or which paper you read. Locally states drugs not related yet larger networks reporting they were. No matter the reasons it's so tragic. Although everything about this is unclear to me it is clear that it was no accident yet is being reported as such. A car going that fast straight into a building with … more ›