Steve left the party with Dennis around 1:30 AM to go get more beer before the stores all closed. Dennis was 21, Steve (and the rest of us) weren't. On an abandoned stretch of road in Rouge Park, the car he was riding in flipped over, ejected him through the front windshield and then landed on him. The driver left the scene of the accident, walked home and went to bed, unharmed, without calling anyone. Steve's mom called all of our houses the next morning asking if anyone had seen him. Left lying under the car all night, Steve had slowly bled to death. They found him the next morning.
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Jim's car died half way up the freeway exit ramp in the dead of the night. Derek and Jim got out of the car and decided they should move it off of the ramp,. since it was pitch black outside and someone could try and exit the freeway, come up the ramp and get into a horrible accident with the stalled out car just sitting there. Derek pushed from the driver's side and steered the vehicle while Jim pushed from the back. A car did come and exit the freeway. It crushed Jim between the two cars doing 75 miles an hour and never hit the breaks. Jim died from his injuries. Derek survived, but he's never been the same since.
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Joe was shot in the stomach by someone settling a debt.
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John was killed with a claw hammer to the back of the head, and then robbed.
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Scotty rented out a room in his house to someone through an ad in the paper. He came home from work one day to find this room mate's friend's partying in his living room without the room mate even being home. When Scott asked them to leave, one of the partiers stabbed him 27-times with one of his own kitchen knifes. It was a closed casket funeral.
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Kevin committed suicide by shotgun.
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Denise hung herself.
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Mark was found by his little boy at home, with the TV on but the lights off, he had overdosed on booze and pills.
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Chrissy dated my buddy who lived across the street from me all during high school. After graduation they broke up and she ended up marrying some guy 10 years older then her that none of us knew. They recently had some money problems. They both lost their jobs. They were evicted from their house. The solution was apparently obvious only to her husband. He drove them to Hines Park, parked the car, shot her in the head and then shot himself...a murder suicide.
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I just found out about Chrissy today. All of the others have happened over the years. These were all my friends. Good friends. All from my old neighborhood.
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Yesterday I thought I saw Chrissy on the freeway in the car next to me. I hadn't seen her in a while and I tried to get her attention, but couldn't, and thought I'd just email her when I got home and ask if it was her. Apparently It wasn't.

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