MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NJ — Two Pennsylvania teenagers killed in a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike in Cranbury on Sunday have been identified by family and friends as 16-year-old Dominic Fenton of Hatboro, Montgomery County, and 19-year-old Josh Ritsky of Warminster Township, Bucks County.
Authorities have not released the names of the victims. The identifications come from social media posts and two GoFundMe pages set up for their families.
Around 5:06 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 11, a 911 caller reported a crash in the southbound outer lanes of the Turnpike, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office and New Jersey State Police said Monday.
Officers found a vehicle with six people inside at mile marker 69.9 in Cranbury. Two of them were thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. The other four were taken to a hospital, and their conditions have not been released.
Police have not said what caused the crash or whether other vehicles were involved. The investigation is active and continuing.
"Why did you have to leave us so soon my beautiful son," Fenton's father, Joey Fenton Jr., wrote on Facebook. "Our lives will never be the same again without you."
Stefanie Keenan started a GoFundMe page to help the Fenton family with funeral costs. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had raised$36,345 of its $35,000 goal.
"There are simply no words to express the pain of losing someone so young, so loved, and with so much life ahead of him," Keenan said.
Keenan said Fenton loved his friends and family deeply. He liked playing basketball at the park, long Xbox sessions, history documentaries and cheering on his Philadelphia sports teams, she said. She described him as loyal and quick-witted, always ready with a joke.
"He had a way of bringing laughter and joy to the people around him, and his presence will be deeply missed by everyone fortunate enough to know and love him," Keenan said.
Keenan also started a page for Ritsky's family. It had raised more than $26,796 as of Tuesday.
"Josh was an outstanding young man with a one-of-a-kind mindset and a heart that was just as big as his dreams," Keenan said. "At only 19 years old, he was one of the hardest-working people you could ever meet."
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call Detective Shadi Zaiton of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at 732-745-4263, or the State Police Cranbury Station Detective Bureau at 609-860-9000, ext. 4424.
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