Local news reports that a 17-year-old male rear-ended the Norman family, causing Irie’s automobile to crash into two other cars. Authorities informed the family that the evidence suggests the driver was at the time reading a text.

Little Isabella was the only one who had survived. At the scene, the other three were pronounced deceased.

The father of Brooklynn and Jace, Brian Newville, said, “We’ve had to move a few times, can’t really walk into the house anymore, see where the kids used to be.”

After parting ways with Brian, their mother Shaneé wrote an emotional statement on Facebook that said, “Being alive is hard.” I cry when I get up, cry when I take a shower, cry when I put on makeup. “The people who loved me the most are gone,” says the photographer, who also lost her mother in the collision. It seems as though Mima and God took them on a vacation. However, it is untrue—they will never return.

A wish list

A few months later, while organizing Brooklynn’s room, her parents found something that would at least somewhat lessen their unbearable suffering.

A handwritten list of everything Brooklynn wanted to see or accomplish before she passed away, known as her “bucket list.”

The young girl has a long list of things she wants to do before she dies, including seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, scuba diving, seeing moose, and owning a drone.

Brian chokes on his tears as he continues, “She always wanted to go hunting with me.” “Never had the opportunity.”

Even though their daughter’s bucket list hasn’t been updated on social media, Brookie’s parents declared at the time that they would accomplish her wishes, no matter how long it took.

driving while distracted

After being suspected of causing the collision that claimed the lives of Irie and her two grandsons, Durango, Colorado resident Noah DeDear was charged with three counts of manslaughter in 2018.

DeDear was a few days away from turning eighteen at the time of the crash, and he will be tried as an adult.

According to police investigations, DeDear acknowledged sending a text just before the collision, but he denied seeing the two messages that his girlfriend and grandma sent him.

2019 saw Brian express frustration to News 4 about the courts’ ongoing delays, saying, “This doesn’t make any sense.” Why can a person take the lives of three innocent people—a grandmother, two children, and themselves—and still be spared punishment while the family is left waiting for answers and suffering in agony?

The family announced on Facebook in February 2021 that jury selection had finally begun.

“Take it down.”

In the meanwhile, the parents are pleading with everyone to just put down their phones.

Brian explains, “We are launching our Put it Down campaign in the hopes that people will put down their phones.” “Everything in the car, including your phone and food, should be put down while you are driving.”

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