Classmates tie blue ribbons to trees to memorialize Boardman grads killed in plane crash

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Fourteen-degree temperatures accompanied by a bitter wind failed to deter Mary Jo Mahood and Mary Jo Rimmel from expressing the warmth they feel for a lost couple and fellow classmates.

“I’ll always remember that they were wonderful, kind and friendly. They were very generous,” recalled Rimmel, of Pittsburgh, referring to John T. Fleming and his wife, Suzanne Armeni Fleming of Dublin, Ohio, who were among the six people aboard a private Columbus-bound Cessna 525 Citation plane when it went missing from radar Dec. 29 over Lake Erie after having taken off from Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport.

Mahood, Rimmel and the Flemings are Boardman High School Class of 1989 graduates, which is one reason the two women joined those who braved the weather to tie blue ribbons to several trees in front of Boardman High during a somber ceremony Sunday afternoon to remember and honor the couple.

Also on the plane that disappeared shortly after the family had attended a Cleveland Cavaliers game were John and Suzanne's teenage sons, John, who went by "Jack" and Andrew, along with the Flemings’ neighbor Brian Casey and his 19-year-old daughter, Megan Casey.

Last Friday, the Cleveland mayor’s office of communications said in a statement that the medical examiner collected debris for analysis to determine if human remains had been found. Search-and-recovery operations were to resume today.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com