Trying to make sense of tragedy

Cops await lab results in deaths of students

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BOARDMAN — Colin Hart was always willing to do what was asked, say people who knew him through the soup kitchen where he volunteered.

“I was devastated when I heard it was him,” said Ralph “Skip” Barone, manager of the dining hall at the St. Vincent DePaul Society soup kitchen in Youngstown.

Colin had volunteered there, serving food for several years during the summer with his grandfather, Bob Hart, a longtime volunteer.

Colin, 18, and Jamie Serich, 17, both of the township, were found dead by police early Sunday in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Both teens, seniors at Cardinal Mooney High School, had been shot in the head, and police are awaiting laboratory results but suspect either murder-suicide or double suicide. Jamie had sent text messages to friends Saturday evening, saying he was going to kill himself, a police report said.

“He was a good young man, easy going, always smiling,” said John Fitzgerald, a janitor at the soup kitchen.

Barone described Colin as respectful and “absolutely a delight.”

“He was always willing to do whatever I asked,” he said.

Colin was a member of the school’s baseball team.

Jamie was a member of Mooney’s cross country, baseball, basketball, soccer and intramural basketball teams. He enjoyed playing video games, according to his obituary, and was a member of the school’s National Honor Society and an altar server for Holy Family Church, Poland.

Jamie’s family has requested that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Jamie Serich Memorial Scholarship Fund at Cardinal Mooney High School, 2545 Erie St., Youngstown, OH 44507.

Barone learned of Colin’s death early Monday.

“It was hard to get through the day,” he said. “I kept thinking about him.”

Barone last saw Colin in the late summer shortly before school started.

Results of gunshot-residue tests aren’t expected for a week or two, said Police Chief Jack Nichols. Police believe those results will tell them whether the deaths were a result of a double suicide or a murder-suicide.

Toxicology results likely will take several weeks.

Colin was still holding a gun in his right hand when his body was found, and police are trying to determine where he got it, Nichols said. It is illegal in Ohio to sell or provide a handgun to someone younger than 21, he said.

Calling hours for Colin are set for 4 to 8 p.m. today at Higgins-Reardon Funeral Home, Boardman-Canfield Chapel. A Mass of Christian Burial is planned for 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Charles Catholic Church.

Calling hours for Jamie are set for 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Cunningham-Becker Funeral Home, Poland, with services at 9:15 a.m. Friday at the funeral home and at 10 a.m. Friday at Holy Family Church, Poland.

Parent-teacher conferences scheduled for today at Mooney have been canceled.

About 300 mourners attended a Monday Mass for the boys at the high school, and many students had gathered at the school the previous day after learning about the classmates’ deaths.

Students wrote messages on poster boards hung on a back wall such as “We love you” and “we’ll miss you forever.”

denise_dick@vindy.com