Father uses app to track down teen daughters only to see their tragic fate in person: 'It's just unreal'

A father in New York state is sharing the heartbreaking account of how he learned of the tragic deaths of his two teenage daughters after using an app to track their location.

Hailey Trumble, 19, and Shelby Trumble, 17, went to the Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, New York, on Aug. 1.

'It's just unreal. ... I still can't come to terms with it.'

Before the teens left the home, their father gave them $100 for the amusement park and told them he loved them, and to "have fun and behave," according to People magazine.

Brian Trumble, 45, said of the talk with his daughters earlier that morning, "Of course, they were adults. They didn't need to be told to be behaved, but this is what I always tell them."

Trumble had no idea that it would be their final face-to-face conversation.

After spending the day at the amusement park with Trumble's girlfriend, the sisters returned to her home before going back out again late that afternoon.

When a text to his daughters received no reply, Trumble used the Find My Friends app to determine their location. He saw that they had not moved from a point on a local road in the nearby town of Cato, approximately 3 miles away.

As Trumble neared the location, a police officer blocking the way stopped him, informing him that there had been a terrible car accident in which a girl had died.

"I just sat on my bumper and I couldn't stand up," Trumble recalled of the gut-wrenching moment.

Josh Lovejoy, one of the firemen at the scene of the fatal car crash, told Trumble that he stayed with Hailey right until the end.

The distraught father soon learned that Shelby also succumbed to her injuries from the deadly car accident.

The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office said in a press release that the girls were driving eastbound in their 2005 Chevy Cobalt when the "vehicle crested a hill and crossed into the opposite lane, striking a second vehicle."

The Cobalt smashed into a 2016 Jeep Cherokee being driven by a 59-year-old woman. She was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries and was said to be in stable condition, according to police.

Trumble believes his daughters were unfamiliar with the road, which he described as being "hilly" and winding.

Since his daughters' tragic deaths, the family has "been holding on to each other and just coping and trying to deal," said Trumble.

"It's just unreal," he added. "I still can't come to terms with it."

Trumble said the knowledge that Hailey and Shelby would be cremated and interred "so they'll always be together" gave him some peace.

As does telling the world about his girls, who he said were both "simple country girls" at heart.

"I want people to know their story," he said. "They were sweet and beautiful and just lovely."

"They touched so many people," Trumble continued. "Everybody that met them just loved them ... They were pretty much just figuring out what they were wanting to do."

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to assist the family in paying for the funerals. At the time of publication, it had raised over $46,000.

A funeral service for Hailey and Shelby will be held Aug. 10 at Traub Funeral Home in Central Square, New York.

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