Community Mourns Loss of Three Teens in Murrieta Crash

Kile Kennedy III, Tate Herman and Anthony Aleman were all killed when the Lexus they were in flipped off Winchester Road on Jan. 16, 2016. Images via GoFundMe.

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Authorities have publicly identified all three teenagers killed when their car crashed and rolled over in Murrieta as the friends marked one of their birthdays.

Kile Kennedy III, who died less than two hours after turning 13, had been named by the Riverside County coroner’s office Saturday as one of three young Hemet residents killed in the crash.

The other two were identified as Tate Herman, 18, and Anthony Aleman, 16.

The teens were in a silver 2002 Lexus 300 that veered off state Route 79 -- also called Winchester Road in that area -- and crashed through a guardrail before coming to rest in an open dirt field north of Benton Road, according to Murrieta police Sgt. Dave Baca.

They were found unresponsive inside the sedan and were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which happened about 1:50 a.m. Saturday, the sergeant said.

Police have not disclosed who was driving the Lexus. It belonged to Anthony’s grandfather, the boy’s step-uncle, Nico Magee, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise, which reported that the teen’s family has been told Anthony was a passenger in the car.

Anthony’s mother, Crystal Aleman, told the newspaper that the three friend’s planned to go to the beach to celebrate Kile’s birthday.

A spokeswoman for the Hemet Unified School District, where both Kile and Tate were students, told the Press-Enterprise that counselors would be available to students and staff when classes resumed Tuesday after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

A makeshift memorial sprung up at the crash scene and a vigil was to be held for the teenagers over the weekend at Birdsall Sports Park in Temecula.

Three separate GoFundMe pages have been set up in memory of the victims. As of Tuesday morning, more than $16,000 had been raised by community members to help with funeral and other related costs.

• Click here to donate to the family of Kile Kennedy III.
  
  
• Click here to donate to the family of Tate Herman
  
  
• Click here to donate to the family of Anthony Aleman

Police asked anyone with information about the crash to call the investigating officer at (951) 461-6849.

– City News Service contributed to this report.