Second Liberty High student who died in two-car crash identified

BRENTWOOD — The second of two Liberty High students who died in a two-car crash early Sunday has been identified by friends and an online fundraiser that’s seeking to help the family.

Caden Kyle, 17, was a senior at the high school. He died along with fellow senior Dominic Ferrari, 17, when the silver Infiniti in which they rode collided with a white BMW in the area of Deer Valley Road and Balfour Road in Antioch about 12:20 a.m. on Sunday. A third student who has not been identified was hospitalized and is expected to survive.

“There are truly no words for a loss this devastating, and our hearts are completely broken for . . . their family and everyone affected by this horrible accident,” a statement written on the fundraising page for Kyle said. The page had raised about $25,000 of the $30,000 it was seeking by 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Police said the BMW driver also was hospitalized in the wreck. They have not provided an update on that person’s condition.

Crisis counselors were brought to the Liberty campus. The flags on the campus were at half-staff.

In an email to the school community, Liberty Principal Efa Huckaby urged teachers to remind students that “they have support at home and at school” and that they “don have to face (the grief) alone.”

Police have not said what they believed caused the cars to crash. It was not clear if investigators believed speed, alcohol or drugs were involved, and police asked anyone who may have witnessed the incident or who has dashcam footage from the area at the time of the crash to come forward.

In a social media post Monday, Ferrari’s mother, Stephanie Starkenberg-Ferrari described checking his location on her cell phone and noticing he was “nowhere close to home.” After he didn’t respond to a text, she and her husband drove to the scene and saw the police lights.

“My body went numb,” she wrote. “My husband barely stopped before I jumped out and ran toward the scene. I was screaming, ‘Is my son OK? Is he OK? My husband was besides me when the officer told us what happened. I screamed, ‘No, no, no! This can’t be real.’”

In another post Monday, Starkenberg-Ferrari wrote that she and her husband “are just completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from entire community. Words truly cannot express how thankful we are.”

An online fundraiser for the Ferrari family had raised $33,300 by 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. It was seeking $47,000.

Police have urged anyone who witnessed the incident or has surveillance or dashcam footage from the area to contact Sgt. Rob Green from the Traffic Unit at 925-779-6864.