Twin Cities students deal with deaths of 2 schoolmates

Published 4:27 pm Wednesday, October 5, 2011

OAKDALE, Minn. — Students at a suburban Twin Cities school are getting emotional support after the deaths of two schoolmates and their father in a motor home fire near the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale school district spokeswoman Jennifer McNeil says a grandmother of the students informed school officials of the deaths Tuesday.

District officials identified the victims as 5-year-old Jersey DeHaven, a kindergartner at Skyview School in Oakdale, sixth-grader Jace DeHaven, 11, and their father, Anthony DeHaven.

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Grand Canyon officials have not confirmed the identities of the three people who died in the fire along a road to the Grand Canyon National Park. It’s the second tragedy to hit Skyview recently. A 6-year-old student went home Sept. 15 to find her parents and a baby sitter fatally shot.