PEORIA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – A growing memorial sits on the side of the road in Peoria, piled up with favorite stuffed animals, notes, and flowers for the five lives lost. Last year on Nov. 20, around 9 p.m., Elizabeth Simpson, 36, of Glendale, was driving her fiancé Jace Hochstetler, 31, of Phoenix, in a Mazda van with her three children and Hochstetler’s daughter in the back seats.

Police say a Jeep SUV was heading south on 107th Avenue when it crashed into the van that was turning left from Lone Cactus Drive, just south of Deer Valley Road. Simpson and Hochstetler died at the scene. All four kids were hospitalized, but three later died. “There’s just no words. None at all to describe the pain that all of us are going through,” said Sarah Harbeke, the aunt of one of the kids killed in the car. “Before he got behind the wheel, he knew what he was doing. He took a chance, and that chance took five lives,” said Lynnette Jones, a family friend.

Peoria Police have arrested a teenage boy accused of causing a crash. Investigators found the 17-year-old near 55th Avenue and Butler Drive, south of Olive Avenue, just before 7 a.m. on Thursday. He was taken into custody and booked on five counts of second-degree murder. Police believe the teen was speeding and impaired at the time of the crash. He hasn’t been identified. Now, family and friends are pushing for justice as this case plays out in court more than a year later. “We’re never going to forget it, but maybe we can find peace sometime,” Harbeke said.

Just last week, the mother of Evie, one of the girls killed in the crash, started a GoFundMe to help with the cost of a headstone for Evie and her father, Jace Hochstetler. If you want to help donate, click/tap here.

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