It was supposed to be just another Saturday night out. Instead, the early hours of Sunday, May 17, turned into one of the most devastating mornings Delhi Township, Michigan has seen in recent memory. Two Holt men — 39-year-old Lavar Ball and 39-year-old Dey Hatin Fareal — lost their lives in a violent single-vehicle crash on U.S. 127 near Interstate 96, and the community is still trying to make sense of it all.
The Ingham County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the crash happened around 3:10 in the morning, when a vehicle heading northbound on U.S. 127 suddenly veered off the roadway. Ball and Fareal were passengers in that vehicle. Neither of them made it out alive. Both men were pronounced dead right there at the scene, leaving behind whatever life they had built in Holt, gone in an instant, just like that.
The driver, a 28-year-old man from Lansing, survived — but just barely. He was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. As of now, his identity has not been publicly released, and investigators are still working through the details of exactly what happened in those dark, early morning hours on that stretch of highway.
Authorities haven’t minced words about what they think may have played a role in the wreck. Speed and alcohol are both being investigated as possible contributing factors, according to officials. That’s a combination that has ended too many lives on roads like this one, and for Ball and Fareal, it appears to have sealed their fate on a Sunday morning when most folks were still fast asleep.
The crash hit U.S. 127 hard — both directions of the highway were shut down temporarily as law enforcement worked the scene. It wasn’t just the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office out there either. Michigan State Police and several local departments all showed up to assist, which gives you some idea of how serious this crash really was. The investigation is still ongoing.
For the people of Holt and the surrounding area, the loss of two 39-year-old men in one single moment is a gut punch that doesn’t go away fast. Ball and Fareal were neighbors, residents, members of a community that now has to figure out how to move forward without them. Their names are now attached to a stretch of road that a lot of people drive every single day without thinking twice.
What happened on U.S. 127 that morning is a painful reminder that life can change — or end — in seconds. Two men left somewhere that night and never came back. The families they left behind, the friends who knew them, the community that surrounded them — they’re all carrying that now. And while the investigation continues, the only thing that’s certain is that Lavar Ball and Dey Hatin Fareal were here, they were real, and now they’re gone.
