Police estimated 200 area youths attended an impromptu vigil for Cory James Bouthot.
DIXFIELD – An estimated crowd of 200 area youths held an impromptu candlelight vigil Tuesday evening at the scene of Sept. 13’s highway fatality, police said.
Ever since the wreck that killed Cory James Bouthot, 19, of Mexico, personal remembrances, flowers and lots of candles have been accumulating at the shrine site – a clump of four trees located down over an embankment from the westbound truck pullout lane beside Route 2 atop Morrison Hill.
Officer Mark Dow said Monday that his investigation into the single-vehicle wreck, which occurred sometime after 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, is continuing.
Based on evidence at the scene and reconstruction work, police believe a 1995 black Pontiac Grand Prix, driven by Monica Chenard, 16, of Rumford was traveling west at an unknown speed in the 55 mph zone when it entered a turnout atop the hill.
Police at the scene said the car could have been traveling at 55 mph when the wreck occurred, but they would probably never know for sure.
Police said the Pontiac struck the road-side turnout curbing and skidded 45 feet sideways down the pullout lane before rolling and bouncing over another curb. It barrel rolled through the air and slammed roof first into the tree clump, pinning both youths inside.
For several frantic minutes, firefighters from Dixfield, Wilton, East Dixfield and Rumford worked together to free the youths.
Dixfield firefighters, who arrived first, used their newly-purchased battery-operated Sawsall extrication tool until Rumford and Wilton firefighters arrived, bringing their hydraulic Jaws of Life tools.
While firefighters worked on either side of the Pontiac, Med-Care Ambulance paramedics – hanging half inside and outside of the crushed Pontiac – comforted the teens, providing them with oxygen and medical support.
After the crumpled roof was removed by about 8:15 p.m., the victims were carried up to awaiting Med-Care ambulances.
One ambulance took Chenard a short distance to the LifeFlight helicopter landing zone atop the hill. Paramedics in the other Med-Care ambulance where Bouthot lay waited until the medical examiner arrived from Augusta to pronounce him dead, said Med-Care Director Dean Milligan.
Chenard was airlifted to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and initially listed in critical condition. A nursing supervisor said Monday night that she is in stable condition.
Candlelight vigil
The candlelight vigil, believed to have started at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 16, the day before Wednesday morning’s overflowing funeral mass for Bouthot at St. Theresa’s Church in Mexico, lasted until about 10 p.m., Dow said.
“I was alerted Tuesday night that they might be having one, so I responded. Because of the magnitude of the crowd, I had my cruiser lights going as a precautionary measure while parked on the hill to alert oncoming drivers from both directions,” said Dow, who arrived at 9 p.m.
He said both truck pullouts on either side of the road at the top of the hill were full of cars and more were parked along both sides of Route 2.
“I estimated the crowd at 200 kids. There were between 50 and 60 vehicles up there,” Dow added.
Bouthot, who was born in Farmington, Sept. 6, 1984, the son of James and Lisa (Waterhouse) Bouthot, was a 2003 graduate of Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, where he played football and lacrosse.
A resident of Intervale Avenue in Mexico, Bouthot was attending Central Maine Community College in Auburn.
Since Bouthot’s funeral service, additional grieving youths have frequented the shrine, some leaving lit candles that at 8 p.m. Thursday, ignited dry vegetation and brought out Dixfield firefighters to extinguish the flames, Dow said.
Comments are no longer available on this story