Monday was supposed to be a day of celebration for those with ties to Cardinal Mooney High School, after the football team won its seventh state title Friday.
Instead it was one of sorrow and grief. Students, staff and families crowded into the school's auditorium, many embracing each other, to remember two seniors who were found shot to death in a cemetery Sunday.
Early Sunday morning, Boardman police discovered the bodies of Colin Hart, 18, and Jamie Serich, 17, on the grounds of the Forest Lawn Cemetery on Market Street. Both had single gunshot wounds to their heads. Investigators, who found a pistol near the two, believe Colin shot himself. But they're not sure if the case was a murder-suicide or if both took their own lives.
The Mooney auditorium and the rest of the school were supposed to have been empty Monday, as classes were canceled to celebrate Friday's state football championship. But news of the shootings spread quickly among the close-knit student body.
Principal Sister Jane Marie Kudlacz said both Colin, who was from Boardman, and Jamie, who was from Poland, were on the baseball team together. For now, Kudlacz said the school's chief concern is for the rest of the students. Grief counseling was offered there Monday and will be Tuesday when classes resume.
Hart's funeral services will be Thursday morning at St. Charles Church in Boardman. Arrangements for Jamie Serich have still not been completed.
The incident has prompted Cardinal Mooney to cancel Monday's girls basketball game against Salem. There is no word on when that game will be rescheduled.
They boys were found about 7 a.m. after a patrol officer noticed a parked car inside the Market Street cemetery. That's where he found the teenagers lying near the car.
"Depending on what kind of evidence we discover, and some of the things that we have found, it could take several weeks, up to a couple months before we find any answers," Boardman detective Glen Patton said Sunday.
