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Second tragedy haunts neighbors on Franklin Street

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 2, 2008 at 8:55 p.m.

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Parker Lofgren, left, Caroline Lofgren and their children Owen and Sophie

Parker Lofgren, left, Caroline Lofgren and their children Owen and Sophie

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It's midafternoon and Maria Ruiz is learning that this will be the toughest time of the day for her to get through.

"The kids are coming home from school now," she said, wiping tears from her eyes on an unseasonably warm Tuesday afternoon. "It's just so sad."

She looked over at the tall, gray house next door, its porch lights still burning in the daylight. Ruiz took off her glasses and realized she'd never see the family that lived there again.

The house Ruiz saw belonged to the Lofgren family. They died last week while staying in an Aspen mansion, victims of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning.

In this small neighborhood on Franklin Street, the deaths of Parker and Caroline Lofgren and their two children, 10-year-old Owen and 8-year-old Sophie, have hit hard. Not only because the children played with other kids on the street, but because it's the second neighborhood family to essentially be wiped out within a year.

Last December, John Parr, his wife, Sandy Widener, and their 19-year-old daughter Chase, were killed in a chain-reaction car crash on Interstate 80 in Wyoming.

Sonja Leonard-Leonard, a real estate agent who lives across the street from the Lofgrens and brokered the house for the Parrs, said the word "jinxed" has crept into the neighborhood vocabulary.

"When it happened to the Parrs, it just gave everyone pause that life is so fragile and you have to be thankful for the life you have," she said. "And when it happened again now with the Lofgrens, you think, 'What is going on?' The hardest part is trying to explain to the kids on the street what happened."

The ripple effects of the tragedy don't end on Franklin Street.

Both Owen and Sophie attended St. Anne's Episcopal School - a campus dealing with another tragedy that hit in August. On its Web site, it still has the memorial page up for 12-year-old Sam Masoudi and 8-year-old Grace Masoudi - killed when a small plane hit the Oregon house in which they were staying.

St. Anne's Headmaster Alan Smiley already had another memorial page posted for Owen and Sophie and said in a statement that the school is grappling with grief.

"St. Anne's Episcopal School is grateful for the concern and support of the greater Denver area as we strive to recover from our most recent loss and our profound grief," Smiley said. "We are blessed to have an exceptionally strong, supportive, caring community, and we are confident that this courage, love, and compassion will allow us all to get through these difficult times together."

Many in the neighborhood will attend the public funeral Friday, but adjusting to the new silence at the house on Franklin Street is going to be a challenge for quite some time.

"They were such a sweet, nice family," next-door neighbor Jenny Ennis said. "The kids would shovel snow for us sometimes in the winter and you'd hear them laughing and playing. It's just hard to believe that they're not going to be there anymore."

Comments

  • December 2, 2008

    10:27 p.m.

    rj1967 writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • December 2, 2008

    10:37 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    MsBGH writes:

    This is not a racial issue - it's a SAD LOSS!!! There has been a lot of death in one year! 2008 has been tough on a lot of families that have lost members this year. This year it seemed more than normal - too weird! Have mercy - I am glad that a family CAN go on vacation and spend time with those they love! I am sorry it ended in tragedy!

  • December 3, 2008

    1:31 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Kered writes:

    rj1967...I understand what you're saying but give this neighborhood a brake...you seriously wouldn't think the same thing if these two families had been wiped out in your neighorhood, would you? We have had our fair share of the media blowing stories out of proportion because the family invovled was "wealthy" but a story like this is warrantied IMHO. My heart go out to those involved...

  • December 3, 2008

    5:34 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    roger44 writes:

    All because someone failed to install or change the batteries in a detector.

  • December 3, 2008

    9:25 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    redhead68 writes:

    This story is so unbelievably sad, because it was preventable. Today, I'm going out to purchase two more carbon monoxide detectors, one for the second story of my house and one to pack in my luggage when traveling.