AUBURN – Mourning continued Friday for the victims of a devastating car wreck that left six dead in Poland early on Christmas Eve.

Among those lost were Laura Caron, 25, and her fianc, Steven Walton, 27, of Poland, both of whom were remembered during a funeral service held at Dillingham & Son Memorial Chapel.

Family and friends filled the 169 seats at the chapel, then kept coming until it was standing room only. The service lasted more than an hour.

“It was as beautiful as it could be, under the circumstances,” said one woman as she left.

Tears were still flowing as people made their way across the cold parking lot and waited in cars to join the funeral procession to the Grand Army Republic Cemetery in Lewiston.

Caron and Walton were remembered as high school sweethearts who were always together.

Jason Jones of Lewiston had known the couple for about four years. “Steve was a friend of my wife’s family,” he said. “Laura came along with him, too, because they were inseparable.”

Walton and Caron were always upbeat, Jones said. Always smiling.

One of Caron’s cousins, Tammy Knowlton of Auburn, was overcome with tears while trying to talk about her lost relative.

Her husband, Steve Knowlton, filled in. “They were both good people that loved each other very much,” he said.

Tammy Knowlton added that Caron came from a big family and had been very close to her sisters.

“We’re just trying to hold it together right now,” she said.

Caron had been working at Ruby Tuesday in Auburn for about five months, said Melissa Fanning of Brunswick, a manager at the restaurant. Caron always wore a big smile. She was generous and would give a person the shirt off her back, Fanning said.

A relative of Walton’s who asked not to be identified said he heard rumors of a party where the 20-year-old driver of the car that slammed into Walton’s may have been drinking before the crash. “It’s just too bad something like this had to happen,” he said.

Police have declined to discuss whether speed or alcohol was a factor in the crash. The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department is conducting a criminal investigation.

According to police, the accident occurred early Sunday morning on Route 122, when a Nissan Altima driven by Michael Cournoyer of Auburn skidded on black ice, spun out of control and crashed into an oncoming Dodge Spirit driven by Walton.

All six people in the two cars were killed. The other victims were Robert Bruce, 19, of Auburn; Matthew Manley, 18, of Lewiston; and Jacob Roy, 20, of Lewiston.

Walton was said to have doted on his dog, a pit bull named “Achilles,” who also died in the accident.

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