Currents News Staff
On June 23, Jason Marshall along with 14 others, including high school students, were returning to New Mexico after a Catholic youth conference in Denver.
Around 2:30 pm the charter bus crashed, killing two and sending several others to the hospital, among them Marshall, a seminarian aspiring to the priesthood.
More than 24 hours later, the cause of the wreck is still unclear.
Tom Gallegos, Jason’s roommate and a member of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, heard from his friend just moments before tragedy hit.
“21 minutes before the crash, he said, ‘We had a wonderful retreat. It was an awesome retreat, powerful.’ and I go ‘wow,’ That was the last time I heard from him textwise,” said Gallegos.
As soon as he saw the pictures of the aftermath, Gallegos said he immediately knew what happened. “I go, ‘I bet you anything Jason went up there to help.’ And if he was up front and that vehicle crashed the way it did, ‘cause I saw the pictures. I go, ‘he’s the other victim.’”
“I’m sad but I’m actually happy too. I’m happy that he’s with our Lord,” he said.
Marshall’s church, the University of New Mexico Aquinas Newman Center, will hold a special Mass on the evening of June 26 to pray for the victims.