Just days before graduation, senior class mourns a loss

Hours after finishing classes, and just days from high school graduation, Madeysen Kleve and three fellow seniors in Howard Lake decided to show their school spirit one more time Wednesday afternoon.

So they traveled almost 50 miles to cheer on their classmates at a track meet at St. John's University in Collegeville. On the drive home that evening, while crossing Hwy. 55 near Annandale, the teens' car was hit after rolling in front of a pickup truck, killing Kleve and critically injuring two of her friends.

"Timing is always what defines tragedy," said Joel Swedberg, the pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Howard Lake, which Kleve attended. "If you're 89 years and you die suddenly, it doesn't feel like a tragedy. When you're 18 and you die suddenly, it does."

On Thursday about 75 students -- almost the entire senior class from Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted High School -- gathered at the crash site to hug, cry and remember Kleve and their injured classmates.

The students recited the Lord's Prayer and erected a large, bright pink cross some of the boys made Thursday morning in the school shop.

"They were, like, the nicest people and this was, like, the worst scenario," said Brett Hertzog, 17, one of those who gathered by the highway. "They didn't deserve it."

Though by all accounts the accident has hit the small Wright County community of 1,900 people very hard, school officials have decided to go ahead with graduation on Sunday, said District Superintendent George Ladd.

"We are going to have graduation, but it will be a little be more somber," Ladd said Thursday. "The community, the students feel they need to move forward. It is part of the closure and healing process."

Widespread grief

The crash happened east of Annandale about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, when the teens' car was heading south on County Road 6. The car stopped at a stop sign, then rolled in front of the pickup truck heading east on 55, according to the State Patrol. The crash is under investigation.

In critical but stable condition at Hennepin County Medical Center was passenger Mitchell Bayerl, 18, of Silver Lake. Another 18-year-old passenger, Kacie Carlsted of Howard Lake, was in serious condition at St. Cloud Hospital.

"The grief is very widespread," Swedberg said. "Nobody is known by everybody, but everybody is known by a lot of people in a small towns."

The driver, Brie Barfknecht, 17, from Waverly, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was treated at Buffalo Hospital and released, the hospital said.

Barfknecht was at school Thursday as hundreds of students absorbed the news of the death and injuries, Ladd said. He said most of the students spent the morning writing sympathy cards and watching video that Kleve had produced about her senior year.

"It was pretty intense in there for the first four hours," Ladd said. "We never expected to conduct classes because nothing was going to happen."

Nash Faulk, 17, who also attended the track meet, said he and others were caught in the traffic jam that resulted from the crash, but did not find out his classmates were involved until an hour later.

"Everybody was calling," said Faulk, who played on the school basketball team with Mitchell. "They're all good kids, really smart."

Carlsted is the school's valedictorian and plans to attend Augsburg College. Bayerl is the school's salutatorian, school officials said.

The three people in the pickup truck were identified by the State Patrol as Joshua L. Hoffenkamp, 27, of Maple Lake and his children, Seann T. Hoffenkamp, 2, and Kaia Hoffenkamp, 4.

Authorities said the three did not suffer life-threatening injuries, but Joshua's wife and the kids' mother said Thursday afternoon that they were badly shaken by the experience.

Calleigh Hoffenkamp said State Patrol investigators told her that car seats probably saved the lives of her children, although they did suffer severe neck bruising from the straps.

"We're still in a little bit of shock," she said. "This morning the kids were a little more afraid. My 4-year-old is telling people she is afraid of the spiders, you know, from the windshield shattering."

Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280 Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482