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COURTESY: ROBIN MILLER/THE REPORTER
Friends stop to read some of the message written on a large photograph of Kristen Fonseca following a candlelight vigil held for her Sunday at Andrews Park.
Hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil Sunday night to remember a teenager killed in a personal watercraft crash at Keehi Lagoon last week.
Friends and family members of Kristen Fonseca, 16, gathered at a park in downtown Vacaville, Calif. to share memories of a girl who was always smiling and loved to have fun.
According to a story in The Reporter newspaper website in Vacaville, Calif., the vigil for Fonseca included an opening prayer, then friends and family lit candles and released balloons. A large photograph of Kristen, signed by friends, stood at the front of the gathering.
“Kristen had a big huge heart,” said Fonseca’s stepfather Mario Canton. “She loved her family and friends and they loved her back. She could just light up a room with her smile.”
“The message we just wanted to get out to everyone is to always tell the people you love ‘I love you,” because you don’t know what can happen,” said Effie Roszko, a friend of the family. “She was having fun and then the next thing you know, she is gone.”
Fonseca was killed when a Yamaha Waverunner driven by 20-year-old Tyson Dagley of Brunswick West, Australia, hit Fonseca’s watercraft in an Aloha Jet Ski Rentals course in Keehi Lagoon on Aug. 4.
Dagley was arrested and charged for misdemeanor negligent homicide in connection with Fonseca’s death and was being held on $100,000 bail.
Police said Dagley wasn’t paying attention when the crash happened and had been showing off for his girlfriend. His girlfriend, Natasha Ryan, 21, of Brisbane, Australia, was also arrested for allegedly misleading investigators by deleting a video taken of the crash.
Funeral services for Fonseca are scheduled on Friday.
