KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
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For many high school students, prom provides a lasting memory.
The memories lie in the process of getting ready and the realizations it's one of the last times high school classmates spend together before graduation.
The families of Itzel Guerra and Jose Maria Placensia Castañeda never imagined prom night would be the teen couple's last night.
Prom wasn't Jose's "thing," according to his family. He decided to just pick his girlfriend up from the dance.
They were eight minutes away from Itzel's home when they died in a wrong-way collision.
Bre'onna Shockley, a close family friend of the Guerras, said there are still stains in the bathroom from Itzel's mother helping her daughter with hair dye for prom.
"She spent her last day getting ready to go to her senior prom," Shockley said Monday. "Her mother got her dressed and ready for the last day of her life. She [Itzel] wore a beautiful blue dress and her family was proud of the woman she became."
They nicknamed Itzel their "Flaca".
They have so many memories of the woman she was becoming.
"If you knew Itzel, you knew she always had a smile or a song or a dance coming out of her," Shockley said. "Her life was just beginning."
Shockley said Itzel's boyfriend, Jose, cared a lot for her. His older brother, Raul, said the same.
"A put others before himself kind of person," Raul said. "He was a sweet kid...wouldn’t harm anyone."
People would see them both together and think Raul and Jose were twins.
Their mother dressed them alike when they were younger.
Raul spoke about his brother in a reflective, yet calm demeanor, because this is not the first time the family dealt with a loved one's death.
"Five years ago, I lost my first sibling," he said. She was a year-and-a-half old, so I already experienced it, and the affect it had on the people around me. When I got home to the news, I knew I would be at the forefront of everything."
Itzel was weeks away from being a Shawnee Mission South graduate. Her current job at a daycare was preparing her for a future in child development.
Jose was a junior. His family thinks he could have graduated a semester early to go to trade school for a job like welding.
"I think he would've eventually seen, had a dream/aspiration cross his mind just chasing it," Placensia said.
Prom was just another snapshot for the Guerra family of who Itzel was becoming.
"She died the princess she looked like," Shockley said. "She will forever ever be that beautiful girl."
There's a Gofundme page for Jose and a fundraiser set-up for Itzel.
Jose's family will use the financial support to bury him in Mexico beside his baby sister whom he loved dearly.
