As some of the grieving came seeking peace later Saturday, others only found more pain at the site of the fatal crash that claimed the lives of four childhood friends.
"It'll probably be the last time I saw his blood," said Christina Ricardo Roman, the victims' cousin,
The best friends, newlywed Shaun Kavanaugh, 30, and Anthony Manescelli, 27, along with cousins 22-year-old Adolpho Bejarano and 32-year-old Juan Carlos Pinto, were all killed as the group returned from a night of bowling.
"He had two kids. He was doing good things for himself. My brother was in college for culinary arts. He was graduating next year. He was a really good cook and uncle to my daughter," said relative Steven Bejarano.
Authorities say it was early Saturday morning when paramedics and police were called to the 2000-block of Weber Road where they found a 2005 black Lexus ES330 friends say belonged to Juan Pinto upside down. All of the occupants were dead.
With the help of the Illinois State Police, Crest Hill police say speed contributed to the crash.
"They'll do a reconstruction, see what happened, how fast they were going, if there were any defects in the car or what exactly may have happened," said Sgt. Tony Rossetti of the Crest Hill Police Department.
Krystal Dorey, who witnessed the aftermath of the crash and tried to help the men, returned to the scene Saturday afternoon.
"We tried to help them, but I think it happened really fast. It happened too quick. There was nothing we could do," she said.
Childhood friend Charles Melvin says God called them to heaven for a reason.
"To take all four of them at one time, he needed a good group of people to go up there and do something," Melvin said.
Although toxicology tests will be completed as a routine part of the investigation, police say there is no indication that alcohol was a factor in the crash.
Authorities also will look into the possibility of an equipment malfunction, which is standard procedure.
A final reconstruction of the accident should take approximately two to three weeks.
