School mourns loss of two students in separate tragedies

The 160 students at Gifford Street High School in Elgin were hit doubly hard by last weekend's tragedies.

The alternative high school for Elgin Area School District U-46 school lost two students: one to a Friday night shooting, the other to a Saturday morning car crash.

"It's a tense day today," guidance counselor Jessica Cullinane said. "Probably 99 percent of the student body has been impacted."

Christian Godoy-Olvea, 19, was one of four teens who died in a head-on car collision that took place early Saturday morning in unincorporated Burlington Township. Police say the crash occurred about 1 a.m. Saturday when Erick Silva, 18, of Streamwood crossed the center line at Burlington and Plato Roads in his Pontiac Grand Am and struck a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix head on. Godoy-Olvea, a passenger in the Grand Am, was pronounced dead at the scene.

A gang-related shooting at a Halloween party on Douglas Avenue in Elgin Friday claimed the life of another student at the school, 16-year-old Jaime Benitez. Calls to police indicated a fight had broken out and shots had been fired outside a home and that a victim was on the ground. Officers found the 16-year-old a block from the party. He was taken to Sherman Hospital and pronounced dead from the gunshot wound. Deputy Police Chief Cecil Smith on Tuesday declined to reveal any specifics about the incident, calling it "an ongoing investigation."

Neither police nor school officials released Benitez's name.

At the school Monday afternoon, several students stood solemnly around the makeshift memorial constructed for both students.

Pictures, journal entries and handmade posters were placed in a mounted glass case next to funeral information.

Evelyn Carvajal, 18, described Godoy-Olvea as "the funny guy that made people laugh." He wore pointy white shoes that he joked were his "dancing" shoes, Carvajal said.

Godoy-Olvea had just graduated from the alternative program Oct. 24, and was planning to earn a nursing certificate at Elgin Community College.

"He was one of my best students. Most of the time he was helping the others," algebra teacher Alma Miho said. "He made the turnaround - he changed. I would tell him every day: 'I'm very proud of you.'"

Benitez, too, was well-liked and beginning to turn a corner.

Vince Jordan, 18, of Streamwood, was friends with both students, as well as 19-year-old Andres Solis, another crash victim.

"It's just devastating," he said of losing three friends at once.

Cullinane said many staff and students plan to attend services for both Godoy-Olvea and Benitez Tuesday, Nov. 4. Services will be held at 9:30 a.m. for Godoy-Olvea at Brust Funeral Home, 415 N. Gary Ave. Carol Stream. A funeral service will follow at St. Isidore Catholic Church, 427 Army Trail Road, Bloomingdale.

Visitation for Benitez will be held from 10 a.m. until noon at the O'Connor-Leetz Funeral Home, 364 Division St., Elgin. A funeral service be held immediately after visitation at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 272 Division St., Elgin.

"I've been here for six years and this is the first time we've had to deal with this," Cullinane said. "Everyone is just mourning and grieving."

Daily Herald staff writer Harry Hitzeman contributed to this report.