The quiet waters near Beaver Park Marina turned into a scene of heartbreak early Friday morning after a car carrying three teenagers plunged into Lake Erie, leaving two young lives lost and a community in mourning.
Authorities say the crash happened around 4:15 a.m. on March 6 along West Erie Avenue near Oak Point Road in Lorain County, Ohio. Police were first called to the area after reports of a utility pole that had been knocked down along the roadway. Not long after, another urgent call came in about a young man trying to enter a nearby home.
Officers soon found the 18-year-old man, wet and injured. He told police he had been riding in the back seat of a car with two young women when the vehicle struck at least one utility pole and veered off the road. The car then crashed into the channel leading into Lake Erie near Beaver Park Marina.
According to investigators, the young man managed to escape through a rear window as the car began sinking beneath the water. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, though officials have not publicly disclosed the extent of his injuries.
Divers from the Lorain Police Underwater Recovery Team searched the marina waters as daylight began to break. Around 8 a.m., crews located the black Chevrolet sedan submerged in the channel. Inside and around the wreckage, divers discovered the bodies of two teenage girls.
The Lorain County coroner later identified them as 18-year-old Lucille Hopkins and 17-year-old Paige Williams, both from Vermilion. The loss of the two teenagers sent waves of grief through their school community and the families who knew them.
Officials at EHOVE Career Center confirmed that both girls were part of their school family. Paige Williams was a senior studying cosmetology, while Lucille Hopkins had recently graduated in 2025 from the medical careers program. School leaders described the tragedy as a painful loss felt across classrooms, hallways, and homes throughout the community.
Grief counselors were quickly made available for students and staff in the Vermilion school district as the news spread. Friends and classmates struggled to process the sudden loss of two young women whose futures had only just begun to unfold.
Police say the crash remains under investigation as authorities work to determine what exactly caused the car to leave the roadway and plunge into the marina channel that feeds into Lake Erie.
