Families, friends bid farewell to four Wake teens

Austin Leonard Flowers, 16, Lane Meyer, 16, and Matt Speight, 17, died Sunday evening when Flowers' Dodge Challenger crashed into a tree near Wake Forest. All three attended Wake Forest-Rolesville High School. 

Mehdy Hazheer, 18, a senior at Raleigh Charter High School, died of injuries sustained two days earlier when he fell while trying to climb a wall at the school and hit his head on bricks.

Flowers' football and baseball teammates were among 400 people who came to remember him during his funeral at Richland Creek Community Church in Wake Forest.

Matt Kirschner recalled how he reacted when he found out his friend was dead.

"The first few hours, I couldn't – I just sat there, and finally my emotions started coming out, and I just cried for a long time," Kirschner said.

Rolesville Baptist Church, where the teens killed in the wreck belonged, hosted two of their funerals. A service for Meyer began at 11 a.m., and Speight's funeral was held at 2 p.m.

Meyer's parents remembered their son as "an incredible young man."

"He made us proud every day. He loved his church family and his soccer buddies and school classmates, as well as teachers," Meyer's parents said in a statement.

Speight would have celebrated his 18th birthday on Friday, the same day he was to graduate from Wake Forest-Rolesville High.

The three died in a single-vehicle wreck at Old Pearce and Zebulon roads after an event at Rolesville Baptist. State troopers said that Flowers was speeding and lost control of his car. Authorities said the vehicle was going 129 mph before the crash and 90 mph on impact.

A fourth student, Brenden Pearce, 16, was injured in the wreck. He was in good condition at WakeMed Thursday. Pearce was Meyer's first cousin.

"To all parents, please remember to give your child hugs and kisses and remember to tell them how much you love them," Meyer's parents said. "To the youth, think about your parents, friends and family each and every time you get behind the wheel of a car."

Services for Hazheer was held at Raleigh Memorial Park & Mitchell Funeral home, 7501 Glennwood Ave in Raleigh, at 2:30 p.m.

Hazheer's parents remembered him as a "very exceptional, unique" child, a devout Muslim who founded interfaith student groups and made every decision prayerfully. He had been accepted to Harvard University.

"Mehdy was just beyond this world, and he's with God now," his cousin Neda Raheen said.