Community Mourns Teens Who Died In Plane Wreck

MONROVIA, Ind. -- People in Monrovia were mourning two teenage sisters who died with their grandmother and her fiance in a small-plane wreck in southwestern Georgia Sunday afternoon.

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Plane Wrecks In Southwestern Georgia

Ashton Church, 18, and Brianne Church, 14, both of Monrovia, their grandmother, Marlena Stein, 53, of Vincennes, and her fiance, pilot Leroy Bud Reitmeyer, of Vincennes, died in the wreck near Sylvester, Ga.

Authorities said it appeared the plane fell apart in the air. Pieces of the plane, a six-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed into a cottonfield about 4:30 p.m. The cause of the wreck wasn't immediately known.

The plane was heading to the Vincennes area from Florida, where Ashton was participating in a golf tournament. Stein arranged for her to play there as part of a birthday present, RTV6's Ben Morriston reported Monday.

Ashton Church was a member of Monrovia Senior High School's girls' golf team. She would have been a senior there this fall, and Brianne would have been a freshman.

"It's a tragedy," said Jack Elliott, a school board member and a former educator who taught both teens in school. "You'd never expect it. It shouldn't be young people that we're burying."

Ashton Church worked at the Eagle Pines Golf Club in Mooresville.

"We've seen Ashton grow into quite the young lady," said the business's Clyde Scott. "She was friends with a lot of kids around here. It's going to be hard around here for a while."

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the wreck, Morriston reported.

A prayer service for the victims was scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at St. Thomas More Church in Monrovia.