‘Jessica will now rest in peace’

Funeral services held for teen killed in bus crash

Associated Press

Published Monday, April 14, 2008

PELICAN RAPIDS — About 1,000 mourners packed the Pelican Rapids High School gymnasium on Sunday to attend the funeral services for a teenage girl killed in a bus crash earlier this month.

Jessica Weishair died on April 5 when a bus carrying students home from a band trip tipped on its side and slid into a ditch. The 16-year-old sophomore from Barnesville was remembered as a shy girl with a memorable smile who loved spending time with her family.

“Jessica Weishair was beautiful inside and out,” said Patti Boen, a neighbor of the Weishair family.

Jessica left behind her parents, Kim and Stacy, older sister Brooke and younger brother Jordan.

“The only word I can come up with is devastating,” said family friend Rena Kubitz before starting a sentence she couldn’t finish. “Just a strong family, and for this to happen to them, it’s just ...”

Weishair’s fellow band members played at the funeral service in an emotional scene. They kept an empty seat in the group with a plant and a flute — the instrument Weishair played.

Weishair’s family members did not speak during the service.

“They want people to know what a special girl she was,” the Rev. Roger Rotvold told the audience.

Rotvold’s daughter, Katie, was on the bus with Weishair. He called the accident “a brutal tragedy” that yanked away the “innocence that pervades childhood.”

Others remembered Weishair as a loving girl who enjoyed helping her grandmother with interior decorating and watching scary movies and riding roller coasters with her brother.

“Everything wonderful that they say about her is absolutely true,” said Colleen Engebretson, a cousin of Stacy Weishair. “When I think of her, I think of the sweetest child. She will be dearly missed for a long, long time.”