Park Hill community gathers to mourn ‘bright,’ ‘funny’ teen killed in car crash
Despite the setting sun, Park Hill High School’s football field was swathed with light Friday as hundreds of people, young and old, circled around the field’s track.
The glow of hundreds of candles illuminated somber faces, sobs often cutting through the silence in the crisp spring air. Many people wore white. Some wore blue bandanas. Others brought flowers, clutched to their chests. All there for Tessa Walker.
Walker, 18, was killed in a car crash near Farley, Missouri, Sunday that left four other teenagers injured.
Community members gathered Friday evening to remember the Park Hill High School senior, who was one of five teens in a 2024 BMW M4 that left the southbound lanes of Missouri Highway 45 around 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
The BMW was allegedly traveling over 100 mph when the driver, 18-year-old Om Patel, lost control of the vehicle, and it overturned before catching fire on the highway’s shoulder, Platte County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jeffrey Shanks said.
On Friday, Shanks said the sheriff’s office believes “excess speed and alcohol were contributing factors” in the crash. After the sheriff’s office concludes its investigation into the crash, it will be forwarded to the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
The prosecutor’s office will then decide whether to file criminal charges, Shanks said.
Tributes have poured in for Walker across social media in the days following her death. Classmates remembered her as “truly one of a kind.” The school district remembered her as a “dedicated student” and “talented athlete.”
Natasha Norblad remembered her as a girl who “always had a smile on her face.” Norblad’s connection with Walker began years before the teen’s birth, when she attended elementary school with Walker’s mother. She’d known Walker since birth, she said, but eventually lost contact after Walker’s mother died.
Norblad never lost contact with Walker’s family, who she said she “grew up with,” and she came to the candlelight vigil Friday to support them. Norblad said Walker was “an amazing girl.”
“She was always bright and funny, laughing, she always had a smile on her face,” Norblad said.
The vigil was led Friday evening with some quick remarks by a representative for the family, who urged attendees to think about Walker’s legacy, about “how she made us smile, how she made us feel.”
The remarks were followed by a moment of silence, before community members grouped together to remember the teen.
“If given time she would have indeed changed the world,” Walker’s obituary said. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that she’d had it all. And she’d earned every bit.”
A memorial service for Walker is scheduled for 11 a.m. March 30 at Vineyard Church, 12300 NW Arrowhead Trafficway, according to her obituary.
