Four local high school students killed in car wreck

Four Vandebilt Catholic High School students – including the football team’s starting quarterback – were killed Sunday in a wreck on La. 182 in Bayou Blue, a tragedy that went undiscovered for about 10 hours.The pickup they were in was discovered submerged in a canal between Bayou Blue and Coteau roads about 1:45 p.m., ending an hours-long multi-parish search that started when they failed to return home from Saturday’s LSU football game in Baton Rouge.

The bodies of T.J. Cantrelle, Megan Hitt and Gabrielle Hebert, all 17, and Ian Haydel, 15, were still inside the 2008 Ford King Ranch that was found submerged, upside down and nearly out of sight in the muddy water that runs alongside the highway, police said. A GPS signal from the cell phone of one of the teens was used to locate the pickup.

Cantrelle, the driver, sent a text about 1 a.m. with the message they were near home, family members and authorities said.

When the teens failed to appear by 3 a.m. parents began their own search.

Authorities were contacted later, and searches were conducted in parishes from East Baton Rouge to Terrebonne.

Police now say the truck, which had been headed west on La. 182, ran off the road in a slight right-hand curve, crossed the oncoming lane, crashed through a guard rail and plunged upside down in St. Louis Canal.

Authorities haven’t released an official cause for the crash, but Cantrelle’s father, James Cantrelle Jr., and grandfather, James Cantrelle Sr., said it appears the teen fell asleep at the wheel.

It is not clear if the students wore their seat belts, police said.

Family and friends of all four teens gathered at a closed convenience store near the wreck site Sunday afternoon, comforting each other as authorities looked for clues as to the crash’s cause.

“Those four people had a lot of people that cared about them,” said Dyllon Rhodes, 17, a senior offensive lineman at Vandebilt.

Cantrelle and Haydel were members of the football team. Cantrelle was the quarterback. Haydel was a defensive back.

Cantrelle helped lead Vandebilt Catholic to a 34-12 win over Assumption this season, completing 7-of-12 passes for 113 yards and one passing touchdown. He also rushed five times for six yards and caught one pass for 8 yards.

After Friday’s game against South Lafourche, a win that left Cantrelle optimistic about the remaining season, he told the newspaper, “We have a special team, and I love playing with these guys.”

T.J., short for “Third James,” had gotten scholarship offers from colleges. He wanted to play football and basketball at Louisiana College in Pineville, and then come back and take over his father’s contracting business, Cantrelle Jr. said. His mother is Amy Hohensee.

He also had a strong faith, something that was evident following Vandebilt’s Sept. 3 win over E.D. White.

“I remember him telling me ‘All week long I would pray God would let me play in the game. He allowed me to play, and I’ll never doubt God again,’ ” Cantrelle Jr. said. “The most solace I can take from this, I know his faith was strong, and he had God in his heart.”

Hitt, an active member of the campus ministry, planned to go to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and study to be a physical therapist, said Meghan Plaisance, a friend of both Hitt’s and Hebert’s.

“She was a really strong person,” Plaisance said. “Even if she was upset, she wouldn’t show it. She didn’t want to upset anyone else.”

Hitt’s parents are Cindy and Kevin Hitt.

Hebert was a cheerleader at Vandebilt. Her parents are Rachel and Todd Hebert.

“She always had fun,” Plaisance said. “There was just something about her that could make you laugh.”

Ian Haydel, called Bug by family and friends, was popular and well liked.

Chris Haydel, Ian’s father, said he was also called Smalls, because of his slight stature. His mother is Tammie Haydel.

Haydel, a sophomore, was the Terriers starter at free safety on defense. His biggest play this season was on Sept. 17 in a game against Assumption, when he recovered a fumble and returned it 98 yards for a touchdown. Vandebilt went on to win the game, 41-16.

“Ian was a little bit younger but certainly was showing already his abilities,” said Ralph Mitchell, Terrebonne’s former public-safety director and longtime announcer at Vandebilt games.

Lisa Vegas, a spokeswoman for Vandebilt, said counselors were on campus this morning to help students deal with the devastating news.

A single death “devastates the whole school,” she said, but four at a time is “just something we never imagined we had to deal with.”

Plans are to hold a wake for all four teens on campus, but details have not been finalized.

“It’s just a devastating and tragic loss,” Mitchell said. “As a community, we need to pull together and support the families and the school and help them through this.