Heroin and prescription painkillers were found in the mangled car that slammed into an Ocean County elementary school this week, killing three young adults, two law enforcement officials said Friday.
The painkillers discovered inside the 2011 Hyundai — which ended up front down against the wall of Pine Beach Elementary School — were similar to oxycodone, said the officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
The impact left a 6-by-6-foot hole in the wall and questions, still unanswered. Killed were Matthew Budesa, 20, of Pine Beach; Kimberly Van Gorden, 20, of Beachwood; and Matthew Witzgall, 21, of Toms River.
Though the collision Thursday morning occurred at high speed, there were no skid marks and none of the occupants of the car was wearing a seat belt.
Police have not said what theory they may have developed about the cause of the crash.
The vehicle was registered to a relative of the driver, Budesa.
The car crashed into the school between 4:30 and 6:45 a.m., Deputy Chief Michael Mohel of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said. There were no indications the driver tried to stop.
Autopsies performed Thursday on Budesa and Van Gorden listed multiple traumatic injuries as the cause of death, Mohel said. The manner of death has tentatively been listed as accidental.
Mohel declined to address speculation on whether Budesa, who attended the K-5 school as a child, intentionally drove into the wall.
“Everything is on the table. We’re looking at everything. All avenues are being explored,” Mohel said.
The autopsy report will not be completed for another few weeks while the car is examined and investigators await the results of toxicological tests on the victims.
“We are going through the car with a fine-toothed comb,” Mohel said.
More than 50 relatives and friends gathered for a memorial service last night at the Children’s Memorial Garden in Toms River’s Winding River Park.
They stood silently, weeping and hugging while holding candlesticks and votives.
After about a half-hour, Witzgall’s grandmother led the group in a prayer before leaving. The crowd continued to grow after she and three of her children left.
“It’s all just a bad, tragic accident,” said Witzgall’s uncle, Dan Boyle of Brick. “They were all just friends.”
Responding to preliminary reports that illegal drugs were found in the vehicle, Boyle said he wants to wait until the medical examiner issues a final report, including toxicological tests.
“I’ll wait till the autopsy comes back,” he said.
But Witzgall’s girlfriend, Heather Hiis of Beachwood, said she wasn’t sure it was an accident. Although the three hadn’t talked about ending their lives, Hiis said, they all had kidded about suicide in the past.
“They were all going through some very hard stuff at the time,” including the stress of family and work problems, said Hiis, also a good friend of Van Gorden and Budesa’s.
Because they were dealing with their individual problems simultaneously, they didn’t have each other for support, she said. “It’s hard knowing this wasn’t an accident,” Hiis said. Others quietly voiced the same concern. “You don’t really drive a car into a building that way without doing it on purpose,” said Matt Relva of Toms River, who graduated from Toms River High School North, like Witzgall.
A relative of Van Gorden’s, who asked not to be identified, said she’s convinced it was not intentional.
“It’s just unbelievable that something like this would happen,” she said. “I think it was an accident. Kim was not in control of it.”
What does similar to oxy mean I wonder..roxi??
