Update
8/19/07: Solved by Val the Nerdy Net Sleuth
Road:
Alongside Mondon Hill Road
Location:
Brooksville, Florida
Victim: Joseph
W. Hall
Date of Accident:
April 9, 2004… about 8:43 p.m.
(NOTE: He died April 10th, the next day.)
Inscription:
"In loving memory of
Joseph W. Hall. We love you!"
Age:
18 (High school senior)
Description: A
heaping pile of crap, consisting of stuffed animals, flowers, candles, a
football, and framed photo of the victim, envelops a small wooden cross.
A poster board lovingly decorated with glitter says farewell.
Analysis:
Rich ran into this monument while on vacation in Florida
in April 2004. Thanks to Val, we have all the info about this tragic
accident.
According to Val:
"This
one was a little tougher to find out who the cross was dedicated to, since
there was no name or dates listed. There was a road named were the accident
occurred though, and in this particular stretch of road, there has been many
deaths, the citizens of the city have been fighting for a while citing how
many fatalities have occurred on Mondon Hill Road in the last decade or so. So
knowing that this guy was a high school student didn’t help too much, from
what I dug up there has been a total of four kids from the same high
school killed in auto fatalities in recent years, and oddly enough, all in
2004! Three of them were 16; one was a female so that was one easily
eliminated as to the “owner” of this cross:
Eric Lee Cipolla, Tommy Gaulin and Carlee Horan.
I figured since the evidence pointed to someone who was a senior in high
school that they would be older (you had listed an age guess of 17 I think).
Sure enough I found the one: Joseph W. Hall, 18. The accident site, the age
and all fit the criteria. But since there was no name listed, I was still
unsure...until blowing up the photograph and reading some the the wishes left
by mourners on the stuff left around the cross site. In the left corner of the
sign in glued Mardi Gras bead necklaces it reads “Jas n Joe, BFF!” So at that
point I knew which victim we had, is was indeed
Joseph W. Hall.
Joseph Hall
attended Hernando High School, and was an honor student and was on the
Principal’s list.
The white
crosses were built by mourning students as tributes. The other students should
have white crosses up somewhere in the area. I have a map below of all the
accident sites if it helps anyone in Florida locate 'em. Some students went as
far as getting tattoo memorials to the accident victims that year.
He was driving a
late model Pontiac at the time of the crash.
Reason for
accident: He failed to negotiate a curve, hit a culvert, and the car
rolled end over end. He was thrown from the vehicle (no seatbelts used I
suppose) along with another passenger, a fifteen year old girl named Alyssa
Jenkins. Both were injured, Alyssa had to be airlifted to a hospital but
survived. Joe died from his injuries at the hospital (strangely enough named
St. JOSEPH'S Hospital) the following day.
Joe spoke
fluent French.
A list of
recent auto fatalities on the road can be read about here, along with a map
pinpointing the accident sites of each victim, including Joe's:
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/21/Hernando/Driver_s_failure_to_m.shtml
Here is a link
to an obituary
about Joseph:
http://www.sptimes.com/Obits/Detail.do?id=70029
He may have played
football, though I’m not sure…you know how people who leave memorial gifts
are, sometimes they have a personal connection, and sometimes the “gift” has
little to do with the deceased. But if he did play football, he seemed to
enjoy baseball more, according to all I’ve read about him...he definitely
played baseball."
