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CHIPPEWA FALLS, WIS. – Holding candles in paper cups and snuggling under a sea of umbrellas, the crowd was silent, except for the occasional voices of girls wearing green or beige vests.
They quietly sang "Make New Friends" and "On My Honor," old Girl Scout norms that took on a new meaning during the emotional vigil Sunday night.
Hundreds of people gathered in the rain to remember the three scouts and a parent who were beaten and killed by a pickup truck that left the road while they were picking up garbage along the way. 39, a rural road in western Wisconsin.
The driver fled the scene and later surrendered to the authorities. The identities of the victims will be revealed Monday morning.
"It was heartbreaking," said Tabatha Kolve, 18, about the tragedy in nearby Lake Hallie.
Kolve, a scout and troop leader, helped her grade four students bademble 150 candles for the vigil. She arrived by car from Eleva-Strum, 30 minutes away. "There is not much to say because it was so upsetting."
At a press conference Sunday afternoon, the Chippewa Falls School District said that two of the deceased fourth-graders died at Halmstad Elementary School. A mother who was chaperoning and her daughter, of Southview Elementary, were also killed.
"It's a difficult time for our students, our family and our staff," said Superintendent Heidi Eliopoulos, who was wearing a scouts' green kelly ribbon. She said that about 15 scouts and chaperones participated in the cleaning project.
Memorials have appeared throughout the day. A single bouquet of pink, gold and white artificial flowers was affixed to the wooden post of the "Adopt-a-Highway" sign indicating the section 3055 is responsible for the maintenance.
The sign is about one kilometer from the crash site, in the middle of houses, farms, birch stands and a sign announcing an apple orchard.
Just before the spot where the troop was hit, several garbage bags and an old tire had remained on the ground, which was probably what the girls and chaperones had picked up on Saturday.
In front of Halmstad Elementary School, teddy bears, balloons, candles and a bouquet of flowers were sitting on two wooden benches on Sunday afternoons. Inside, dozens of families have met with religious leaders and councilors, as in Southview.
Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo said on Sunday that the Girl Scouts stood alongside "our sci-fi sisters in Wisconsin to cry and comfort each other in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy".
Service project
On Saturday morning, two small groups of Girl Scouts 3055 and their adult companions were wearing a lime green lifejacket as they walked along both sides of County Road P. The fourth grade students had Using this rural road and doing the community service that was there, clean up the stretch of farmland and residential areas just north-west of Hallie Lake in the spring and fall.
A black pick-up truck quickly turned off the road into the shallow ditch where some of the girls were walking, killing two of the girls and the mother. The truck then returned to the road and moved away quickly, according to police and witnesses.
Two other scouts were taken by ambulance and helicopter to a hospital where one died later on Saturday.
The surviving girl, who went to Halmstad, was hospitalized in Rochester late Saturday in critical condition. An update on his condition Sunday was not available.
Amy Schultz, operations manager for the North West Great Lakes Girl Scouts, said the deaths did not cast any doubt on the safety of the Girl Scouts.
"It's important to remember that the girls were very safe," said Schultz, who was at the vigil. "They were scouts. That's who we are: we are leaders and we do community service. "
Cause not clear
The driver of the van that struck them, Colten Treu, 21, from Chippewa Falls, was later arrested.
Treu is currently detained at Chippewa County Jail, where he is expected to be charged with homicide for four counts of homicide for careless use of a vehicle, according to Sgt. Daniel Sokup of the Lake Hallie Police Department.
The authorities claim that the accident occurred before a hill and that there was no blind spot. It's unclear whether Treu was somehow distracted at the time, Sokup said.
A family member of one of the girls who escaped the injury said that they were picking up garbage in the grbad between the road and a field near the road. The overpbad was crossed around 11:40 while another small group crossed the street when the Ford F-150 Treu went out of the way.
On Sunday, a fluorescent orange spray paint traced the truck's path when he crossed the center line, left the road and entered the ditch, where he hit the girls and the chaperone. The truck landed and climbed onto a steep slope.
What appeared to be pieces of plastic from the truck's grille or bumper was in the ditch.
On Saturday afternoon, several police vehicles were parked at Treu's home in Chippewa Falls, where investigators searched the house, garage and driveway. A tow truck was parked near the garage.
Local residents said on social media that they had seen police converging on the house a few hours after the accident, while Treu was coming out to surrender.
Melanie Kollwitz, who lives in a couple of Treu homes in a townhouse, said Sunday that she did not know him, but she saw six police cars surrounding her home on Saturday, trying to get him out.
At the press conference Sunday, Eliopoulos said Treu was a graduate of the Chippewa Falls School District.
At the vigil on Sunday evening, Kari Mero of Chippewa Falls brought her therapy dog, Boots, because, she says, "I care about people and care about others."
Crying, she confided that she was close to the scene of the accident, a few minutes before her event.
"I saw them working," she said of the troop, doing just what the scouts are for.
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