Teen deaths touch many at Eldorado

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, March 3, 1998 | 9:57 a.m.

Twenty-year-old Xiomara Cora knelt on the parking lot at Eldorado High School and spray-painted a black and red tribute to her cousin Olga Lopez, a 16-year-old Eldorado student killed in an auto accident Sunday.

"RIP Olga + Freddy Lopez 4 my Lil' Cuzz I Lovv You Xiomara"

"This is a nightmare," Cora said. "I woke up this morning and thought this was all a terrible dream."

Lopez and Kena Corbett, also 16, died early Sunday after the 1993 Honda they rode in flipped over a concrete wall on U.S. 95 south of Lake Mead Drive in Henderson, police said.

Driver Amber Carey, 16, and another passenger, Samantha Jenkins, 14, have been treated and released from University Medical Center. Police are continuing their investigation of the accident.

Lopez family members said Olga had been the anchor and peacemaker in a troubled family. They said Olga's only sibling, Freddy, was a prisoner in Carson City.

"One cousin was in jail at 16, now the other one is dead," Cora said.

Other family members agreed Olga was the family's rock.

"There's a lot of dissension in the family, but she pulled everybody together," Lopez' uncle Carlos Lopez said. "She wanted to be where there was peace."

Many students passing through the school parking lot Monday stopped at a makeshift memorial -- a spray-painted parking stall labeled "Olga's spot" -- filled with flowers, candles and balloons. Students remembered Olga, a varsity cheerleader, for an effusive demeanor and for being a good friend.

"Olga didn't have just one group, she had friends in every group," fellow cheerleader Senica Dovanne said. "She didn't judge anybody for anything but their personality."

Senior Chris Oldford said, "She had the best smile, she was always so happy. She was always just bouncing off the walls."

Students said tensions that exist between some students at Eldorado cooled Monday as news spread of Lopez's death.

"She got what she wanted -- everybody is pulling together," Oldford said.

Students also spoke lovingly of Corbett, a student in the high school's dance club. Many gathered in the parking lot after school Monday, around a car blaring Puff Daddy's rap tribute song, "Missing You."

"She had the best laugh -- I will really miss her laugh," junior Josh Ryan said. "It was just so loud and different."

Corbett's brothers said their religious family was overwhelmed by the outpouring of sympathy from students.

"We believe God said that she had completed her service, that she had done her job and it was time to go home," Corbett's brother Stavan Corbett, 23, said. "That's the way we are dealing with it."

The memorial service for Lopez will be 2-8 p.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Viator's Catholic Church, 2461 E. Flamingo Blvd.

The memorial service for Corbett will be 2-8 p.m. Wednesday at Palm Mortuary, 1600 S. Jones Blvd. The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at Hallelujah Christian Church, 800 N. Rancho Drive.