Garden City Teen Tragedies
Nassau News Staff Writer
Teddy bears, flowers, pictures, and posters mark three spots where four Garden City teens lost their lives. December marked the space of four years since most of the girls died tragically. The accidents have not only made the holidays a bitter time for many families, but have significantly changed a community.
No one can ever forget the girls, but with the time that has passed, it is important to remind the community of Michelle Thompson, Alison Reily, Christina Caroleo and Jackie Vincent .
The string of accidents started on Dec. 19, 2003 with Michelle Thompson, a Garden City High School freshman, dying after she got hit by a car while crossing Rockaway Avenue with friend Alyssa Parizek. Thompson and Parizek were leaving a party. Thompson’s sister said, “It feels like something’s missing. It’s going to be hard.”
Alison Reily attended the wake of Thompson and the next day was killed herself. She got into a car accident on Dec. 23. The driver of the other car in the accident, Omar Afzal, was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Instead of celebrating her Sweet 16, Alison Reily was buried on her birthday. About a month later, Christina Caroleo, who was also in the car, succumbed to her injuries and died on Jan. 26, 2004.
These accidents left a void in a community. Garden City High School principal John Okuski, when asked for comment said, “When something like this happens, its tragic . . . I commiserate with my students. There’s no explanation for that. It breaks my heart because they are so young. They had so much to live and give.”
Three years after Michelle, Alison, and Christina died, Garden City High School lost another student, Jackie Vincent, who was electrocuted on June 22, 2007 while taking a deadly shortcut across the railroad tracks. She came into contact with the third rail when she tripped and fell.
These deaths not only affected a few family members and friends, it affected a whole community. Garden City is still healing emotionally from the accidents.
A lieutenant from the Garden City Police Department told Nassau News: “We have aggressive programs to stop DWI and teen drinking.”
Read Christina Pashayan's production memo and producer's notes on this project.
- This multimedia article was reported as a final individual project for JRNL 80, Online Journalism, Section B, Fall 2007, Professor: Mo Krochmal, Hofstra University (e-mail: maurice.krochmal at hofstra.edu).
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