Dad Opens Up After 2 Sisters Die in Crash: He Shares Last Conversation, Says They'll Be Cremated Together (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Courtesy of Brian Trumble

A father who found out his two daughtersdied in a crashafter using an app to track their phones is opening up to PEOPLE about his heartbreak, as well as the love he has for his girls.

Brian Trumble, 45, confirms to PEOPLE he used the Find My Friends app to track down their whereabouts after texting them several times when the sisters, who had spent the day at an amusement park in Rochester, failed to come home.

“It’s just unreal,” he says. “I still can’t come to terms with it.”

In his last in-person conversation with his daughters earlier that morning, Brian said he gave them $100 for the amusement park and told them he loved them, and to “have fun and behave.”

“Of course, they were adults,” he says. “They didn’t need to be told to be behaved, but this is what I always tell them.”

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Brian believes his daughters were unfamiliar with the “hilly, windy road” they were driving on when the crash occurred, and that they likely lost control of the vehicle after going “too fast” over the top of a hill.

According to a news release from theCayuga County Sheriff’s Office, the car his daughters were in was traveling eastbound when the vehicle “crested a hill and crossed into the opposite lane, striking a second vehicle." The driver of that vehicle survived and was transported to a hospital for her injuries.

Although he says he wasn’t initially worried when he texted and called and didn’t get an answer, explaining that the area his daughters were driving through didn’t get great cell service, around 6 p.m. that night, he decided to see if he could find their location.

“And she said, ‘Oh my God, I heard something happened on Ferris Road,’ " he recalls.

A short time later, the Trumble family learned Hailey had died as well — and he says that one of the firemen, Josh Lovejoy, told Brian that he stayed with Hailey right until the end.

“Since then, we’ve all just been holding on each other and just coping and trying to deal,” Brian says.

“It does oddly bring some sort of a comfort,” he explains. “I mean, I wish none of this happened, but it does give me some kind of comfort that they’re together.”

Both girls were also organ donors. Brian says they made that decision in order to “help other people” in need. “I want people to know their story,” he adds, “they were sweet and beautiful and just lovely.”

“They were both just sweet and lovely and very good,” Brian recalls, noting that they were both animal lovers and “simple country girls” at heart.

“They touched so many people,” the father continues. “Everybody that met ‘em just loved them. They’re just super sweet and kind and really smart, very smart. They were pretty much just figuring out what they were wanting to do.”

Hailey Trumble with a racoon.Courtesy of Brian Trumble

“They were just so lovely,” Brian says. “And they were so important to so many people.”

source: people.com