'She was beautiful inside and out'
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- It was a somber day for student at Springfield's Thurston High School Wednesday. 17-year old Sherry Varo was a junior there. She was killed late Tuesday night while trying to cross Main Street in Springfield, Ore., a deadly stretch of road where six pedestrians have died since 2002.
"I seen her on Monday and now all of sudden I'm never going to see her again," says classmate Amanda Tarango.
Police say Varo had just left a bus stop when she was hit.
On a bus not far behind was Dennys Renteria. Renteria tells KVAL he has been a friend of Varo since they were kids. His bus rode past the accident. He had no idea he was looking at his friend.
"I saw the ambulance come by and everything," he says.
The next morning, his mom awoke him to the news.
"She was like, you know that car crash you saw yesterday? I was like, ya. She was like, that was Sherry and I was like, oh my God. I couldn't believe it. I did now want it to be her."
To help students deal with the pain, staff at Thurston High School set up a "safe room" where students made signs, left notes and shared pictures of their lost friend.
"She was a good friend," says Jasmine Moran. "She was a hard working girl. She was beautiful inside and out."
Those who knew Varo told KVAL she was funny, went to church, liked shopping, and was a good friend.
"People were very sad. Everybody was crying. My friend was crying real bad. It felt really terrible, " says Edgar Villoarrael, one of Varo's classmates.
"What I really liked about Sherry is she was really kind to me," says Villoarrael. "She always cared about everybody else."
Among those pictures was a photo of her with her two brothers, taken when they were just children.
"Her brothers have been in there supporting," says Moran. "They're stronger than us."
Also in the safe room, prayers written in English and in Spanish, pictures of the Virgin Mary, and items representing her Mexican heritage.
