After days of unseasonable warmth, friends and families gathered under a white tent on a chilly night to mourn the losses of Michaela Wegner and Harold Anthony Holt Jr.
Across the street where the two South Riding teens were found with fatal gunshot wounds two days before, dozens of mourners stood holding candles and flowers for more than an hour on Jan. 5.
The young couple died in an apparent suicide pact after leaving notes detailing their love. Wegner's family stayed only moments under the white tent. They stood by a table filled with candles and notes dedicated to 15-year-old Wegner, who went by Kaela. Opposite was a similar table dedicated to 19-year-old Holt, called Tony by friends.
Kaela's stepfather, Richard Graham, thanked the crowd for their support. "This is so tragic for us," he said. "She meant so much to each and every one of you."
The families then retreated to their homes, leaving friends gathered around the tables. They spoke quietly amongst themselves, sharing memories and condolences.
FRIENDS REMEMBERED the two teenagers as friendly and athletic, easy to know and hard to forget.
"When I was feeling down, [Tony] would make me smile," remembered Richie Smith, a Broad Run sophomore, as he stood just outside the tent in the misty rain. "Me and my brother used to call him Superman because we thought he was invincible."
Tony was a friendly guy who loved playing basketball, remembered Megan Kirkpatrick, 14. "He was like a brother to me," she said.
Katie Sloan, a Broad Run junior, swam with Kaela on the South Riding swimming team.
"Kaela was very smiley, very bubbly," she said. "She was the cutest thing. She really cared a lot about Tony."
She added that the two had been dating since the beginning of last summer.
For Broad Run students, this is the second death by shooting in a year. In March 2004, freshman Nicholas Shomaker died after being shot by Matthew Lathram. But unlike after that incident, Sloan said, the response at school the day after Kaela and Tony was different.
"Last year, you came in and everyone was crying," she said. "This year, you came in and no one talked."
And for the residents of South Riding, a close-knit community of young families, the unexpected tragedy required a change in mindset, said Brad Russell, pastor at Dulles Community Church.
"Let our hearts be focused on remembering," he told the mourners.
SHERIFF'S OFFICE deputies responded to a phone call from the Wegner home around 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 3. They found the two teenagers dying from gunshot wounds on the back deck, as well as a firearm owned by Tony Holt's father. The two would later die at separate hospitals.
Preliminary autopsies did not reveal the exact scenario as it played out. A more thorough autopsy and report is in progress, but will not be released for at least a month, according to a Sheriff's Office spokesman.