'Inseparable’ 6-year-old cousins killed after man driving stolen police cruiser crashed into minivan at 97 mph
DAYTON, OHIO: Two young girls were tragically killed over the weekend while they were returning from a soccer game after a man driving a stolen police cruiser collided with the minivan in which they were traveling.
Penelope Jasko and Eleanor McBride, two six-year-old cousins described as "best friends" and "inseparable," died moments after they had just played in their first soccer game of the season with the St. Peter Catholic Church team, according to Dayton Daily News.
Melissa Jasko, Penelope's mother, was driving the minivan with six of her children as well as her sister's child, Eleanor when the accident occurred.
Melissa was pulling away from the curb after having just dropped off a library book when Raymond Walters Jr., 32, who was speeding in a stolen police car, ran a red light at South Patterson Boulevard at 97 mph and struck the minivan and another car.
The crash saw Penelope and Eleanor fatally injured, and the two were pronounced dead at Dayton Children's Hospital. It also resulted in a total of 10 further injuries.
"They were born nearly together, they did most everything together, and they left together," said the slain girls' step-grandfather Ted Blackshear. "They were best friends."
Father Tony Clutcher, the head pastor at the St. Peter Catholic Church in Huber Heights where both the girls were baptized, similarly said, "They were more like twin sisters than cousins. They were so close."
Dayton Police said Walters had stabbed his father in a pickup truck, crashed that truck, and then stole the Riverside Police cruiser that he eventually rammed into the minivan. They said they were not in pursuit of him at the time of the accident.
This incident was not the 32-year-old's first run-in with the law either. He has a lengthy criminal record that includes arrests for aggravated robbery, assault, and menacing, and was only released from prison last month.
While no charges have been filed against him yet, investigators are said to be discussing charging him with multiple counts of murder.
A GoFundMe page set up for the two young girls to cover the costs of their funerals, as well as the hospital bills for the other victims, states that they had "always been inseparable" and "are now in the joy of heaven, together as always."
"While the family grieves for this loss of life and light, two of their children continue to recover at the hospital," a statement on the page reads.
"No amount of money can return those sweet girls to life. What is needed most is prayers for the healing of bodies and souls."
The page has raised $82,022 of a possible $100,000 goal at the time of writing.