On a summer evening in July 2023, 17-year-old Kiea McCann and 16-year-old Dlava Mohamed were on their way to their school formal, dressed in beautiful gowns and full of excitement. They never made it.
The girls were passengers in a car driven by 61-year-old family friend Anthony McGinn. Also in the vehicle were Dlava’s older sister, Avin, and 18-year-old Oisin Clerkin. According to investigators, the short drive to the event turned deadly when McGinn ignored multiple pleas from the teenagers to slow down.
As the car raced along the winding country roads, witnesses later testified that McGinn was driving nearly twice the legal speed limit — reaching 94 mph in a 50-mph zone. Within moments, he lost control of the vehicle. It veered off the road and crashed violently into a tree.
The impact was catastrophic.
Kiea and Dlava, seated side by side in the back, were killed instantly. When emergency responders arrived, the two girls were still holding hands.
Their friend Oisin and Dlava’s sister Avin survived but were critically injured. Avin spent months in the hospital, enduring multiple surgeries and long rehabilitation. For weeks, she was unaware that her younger sister was gone. When she finally learned the truth, she said the guilt of having invited Dlava to the formal nearly broke her.
“I lost my best friend and my sister in one moment,” Avin later told reporters. “We were supposed to be laughing and taking pictures, not saying goodbye.”
During the investigation, police confirmed that McGinn had ignored repeated warnings from his passengers. The evidence showed a pattern of reckless driving, with no attempt to brake before impact. The court later heard that the crash was not the result of poor weather or road conditions, but of deliberate recklessness and disregard for safety.
In May 2025, McGinn pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death. The judge sentenced him to seven years in prison and banned him from driving for twenty years.
For the grieving families, the sentence offered little comfort.
“Seven years — that’s all?” said Teresa McCann, Kiea’s mother, speaking through tears outside the courthouse. “Two beautiful girls are gone forever, and this is what justice looks like? My child’s life is never coming back.”
The judge, while acknowledging the families’ pain, called the crash “a profound betrayal of trust.” McGinn had been a family friend — someone the girls trusted to get them safely to their prom. Instead, his choices destroyed two young lives and devastated everyone who loved them.
