2 Brentwood high school students ID’d in horrific weekend crash

Two Bay Area high school students were identified as those killed in a horrific crash that occurred over the weekend in Antioch.

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Two students from Liberty High School in Brentwood were among the teenagers involved in the deadly Sept. 13 crash, according to school officials. In a letter from the Liberty Union High School District’s superintendent, Denise Rugani, she confirmed the students’ deaths and that a third student was injured and remains in critical condition at the hospital.  

Rugani said it’s “difficult to find the right words” as the community grieves the students’ deaths. 

According to the Antioch Police Department, the collision happened just after midnight on Sunday at Deer Valley Road and Balfour Road. Police said a white BMW and a silver Infiniti collided, and two people in the Infiniti died at the scene. A third person in the Infiniti had severe injuries and was transported to a local hospital, police said. The driver of the BMW was also injured; however, police did not provide details about the extent of their injuries. 

One of the teenagers was identified in a Facebook post by his mother and in a GoFundMe page as Dominic Starkenberg Ferrari, who was 17 years old. His mother, Stephanie Starkenberg-Ferrari, said learning of the crash was “a parent’s worst nightmare.” 

Stephanie wrote in the post that she suspected something was wrong when her son’s location still showed that he was far from home and he didn’t answer her call as she was getting ready to go to bed. She and her husband drove toward their son’s phone location, she said, and once she saw the emergency vehicle lights, she ran toward the wreck. Police eventually told her that their son was involved in the crash. 

“Then we had to go home to our 13-year-old daughter and tell her what happened,” she wrote in the post. “Our lives will never be the same.”  

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A GoFundMe page for the family has raised $49,000 out of its $60,000 goal as of Wednesday afternoon.

Another student who died in the crash, Caden Kyle, was identified in a fundraiser page and in an Instagram post from Liberty High School’s grad night committee. A memorial fundraiser for him has raised $36,200 out of its $40,000 goal as of Wednesday. The fundraiser’s organizer, Lynne Miley, called Kyle’s death an “unimaginable tragedy.”

The third student involved in the crash was identified in another GoFundMe page as James Harper, who is facing a “long road to recovery,” the page states. According to the fundraiser, the students who died in the crash were his close friends. 

Organizers for the three students’ respective fundraisers did not respond to SFGATE’s requests for comment. 

Antioch police said investigators are still working to determining what led up to the crash. Anyone with information about the crash is urged to call the department at 925-779-6864.