NORTHGLENN, Colo. -- Police say alcohol and speed are factors in the crash that killed a 14-year-old girl from Northglenn.
Sarah Haverstuhl, a freshman at Northglenn High School, was reportedly behind the wheel when the car veered off Riverdale Road near Brighton.
The girl’s mother, Laura Haverstuhl, told Denver 7 there’s so much more to the story and doesn’t believe her daughter had been drinking.
"This is my daughter. This is my little baby that grew up to be 14 years old, and only 14. She's never going to be a sweet sixteen," said Haverstuhl.
Roses mark the spot where the car plunged down an embankment and into a retention pool. Investigators say no one in the car was wearing a seatbelt, yet no one was ejected from the vehicle. There were three passengers: two 17-year-old boys and a 30-year-old woman, who Haverstuhl says owned the car.
The passengers were transported to Platte Valley Hospital with minor injuries, according to investigators with Colorado State Patrol.
Haverstuhl visited the crash site with a friend.
"I walked over and said, 'oh my God!' [It was] Sara’s shoes. Like they were waiting for me,” said Haverstuhl. “All I was seeing was this horrible, horrific crash that happened, that took her life. He says look over her."
Haverstuhl told Denver 7 her daughter had left around 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon to meet up with friends.
"She said, 'I am going here. So-and-so is here. I’m going to go.' I said 'I love you.' She said, 'I love you too, bye.' And she left.”
Haverstuhl disagrees with the initial findings of the investigation.
"She was a good person. She wasn't a partier like that. She wouldn't have been drinking and driving," she said.
She wants to know what happened. What caused the accident that took her daughter's life.
"She was too young to be put behind the wheel,” she said.
A link to a Gofundme account to help the family with funeral expenses is here.
