High school sweethearts slain

He was an Eagle Scout and a gifted high school athlete. She was an aspiring anesthesiologist known for the way she encouraged others.

Despite living in tiny towns more than 100 miles apart, Steven Daniel Furtado and Jennifer Carmen Carrigan quickly built a relationship. Over Mother's Day weekend, Furtado made the trip to take her to her senior prom in the Plumas County town of Chester.

Instead, the two 18-year-old high school seniors were killed by Carrigan's former boyfriend, authorities said Monday.

Their violent deaths have rocked Chester, where Carrigan's mother, Joane, found the slain pair inside her home at noon Sunday. Hours later, Joane Carrigan's other child, 20-year-old Billy Victor Carrigan, was critically injured in a vehicle crash as he sped home from the University of California, Berkeley, where he is a student.

As Carrigan was being airlifted to a Chico hospital, Glenn County sheriff's officials were at the Furtado home in Willows. They interrupted the family's Mother's Day celebration to tell them Steven was dead.

Four hours after the bodies were discovered, Plumas County deputies arrested Reyes Carrillo, an 18-year-old classmate of Jennifer Carrigan's at Chester High School and her ex-boyfriend, authorities said. He was held on suspicion of two counts of homicide.

Investigators declined to discuss the case, saying only that the young couple were killed either Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

An autopsy is scheduled today in Reno to determine how Furtado and Carrigan died.

"This little town will be feeling this for a long time to come," said Paul Bernard, a youth pastor who spent much of Monday counseling grief-stricken students at Chester High School.

Billy Carrigan had graduated from the high school, and teachers and students were grieving for him as well. He was speeding along a mountain road just before 7 p.m. when he lost control of his pickup on a sharp curve and slammed into several trees, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Carrigan was airlifted to Enloe Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Monday night, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

News of the killings spread quickly through Chester, a town of about 2,300.

More than 100 young people and adults packed the Lake Almanor Community Church on Sunday night to talk about the victims and to share memories. Jennifer Carrigan's friends remembered her as a "very well-loved girl" with "happy eyes," said Bernard, the youth pastor, who helped organize the event.

Carrigan wanted to become an anesthesiologist and was known for her encouraging nature, Bernard said. She planned to attend California State University, Chico, in the fall.

Adding to the despair was the news that another Chester High School student had been arrested in connection with the slayings.

"It's just absolutely immeasurable," Bernard said. "It hasn't even settled in for a lot of people."

The same sense of loss was apparent in Willows, a town of about 6,200 on Interstate 5 where Furtado was remembered Monday.

Athletic, talented, accomplished and civic-minded, Furtado had been bursting with excitement about becoming an uncle for the first time in a few months. A young man who bench-pressed 300 pounds, he could hoist a deer he'd shot onto his back and carry it a mile out of the woods.

He spent time mentoring children as a Little League umpire and was an Eagle Scout. He was never afraid to be himself, as shown by his playful ritual of dying his hair comic-book colors, friends and relatives said.

A trumpet player for the Willows High band, he met Carrigan at a band event in Sacramento recently and had begun to show her around Willows and introduce her to his friends.

Their personalities seemed to harmonize, pleasing friends and family.

"He just absolutely adored her," said Deputy Brandy McDonald, a seven-year veteran of the Glenn County Sheriff's Department and Furtado's cousin.

Furtado was looking forward to moving to Sacramento to start trade school, where he planned to study to be a mechanic like his father. A candlelight vigil was planned where Willows High's auto shop class is held.

"That was kind of his spot," said Julie Sheats, 15, who once dated Furtado and remained a family friend.

Furtado talked about little else lately but the niece who will be born to his 20-year-old sister. He was an avid hunter, rising before dawn to go with his father almost every weekend seeking duck and pheasant.

Don Furtado, the victim's uncle, said his nephew was a kid generous beyond his years. He said he had heard about a "conflict" in his nephew's new relationship, but he didn't know details.

"He was just a wonderful person," McDonald said, smiling at her recollections. "He'd call out, 'How ya' doing?' He lived life to the fullest."

Furtado's death was the third loss suffered by the senior class at Willows High School in the past year.

Earlier this spring, another senior, Kayla Arnold, contracted a mysterious illness on vacation and died. Her candlelight vigil was held on the same campus.

Last year a football player collapsed and died on the practice field.

The school superintendent, who moved from Los Angeles a few years ago, is unable to grasp the multiple losses for such a small school.

"The thing is, none of these kids brought it on themselves. They weren't doing anything wrong," said Steve Olmos.

The events have been difficult for the town's young people to grasp, he said.

"They're really numb," he said.

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