The Colony Courier
Published December 18, 2007
by Sarah Blaskovich
Kevin Schor’s spacious living room was hardly large enough to squeeze in all the family and friends who wanted to reminisce about his son Trevor, who died in a hit-and-run accident Friday night.
Extended relatives perched on barstools in the kitchen and shoved themselves four across on each couch — some sniffling, others remaining stoic.
Silence hung in the air between each memory of the 16-year-old Hebron High School student.
“I would have loved to see what he could have done with his life,” Kevin said.
Trevor’s personal notes, posted inside his medicine cabinet in the bathroom, still remind him to take out the trash Mondays and Thursdays. The tickets for the Dallas Mavericks game on Friday — his favorite team, behind the University of Texas Longhorns — still lay in front of his computer keyboard.
“At some point, we’ll see what lesson we’re supposed to learn from this,” said Kristin Schor, Trevor’s stepmom.
His sister Crystal hadn’t been in Trevor’s room since he died. The closet still smells like him; his multiple basketball jerseys still hang proudly. Kristin and Kevin have chosen his favorite Mavericks jersey — personalized to say “Trevor” on the back — for him to don at the memorial service at 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Carrollton.
Trevor died Friday night at Parkland Hospital after his vehicle was struck as he was making an illegal U-turn on FM544, said Trooper Rebecca Uresti, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Trevor was turning around to help his girlfriend change a flat tire.
The driver who hit Trevor’s car — who police believe is Arturo Almora-Juarez of The Colony — has been charged on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and failure to stop and render aid, the latter of which is a felony, Uresti said. Police found Almora-Juarez shortly after the alleged hit-and-run.
Almora-Juarez is being detained in the Denton County Jail on an Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE) hold with no bond, said Tom Reedy, spokesperson for the Denton County Sheriff’s Office.
On Friday, Trevor and a group of friends had already watched “I Am Legend” at a movie theater and were leaving the McDonald’s parking lot when Trevor’s girlfriend, Brittany Altom, called and said she had a flat tire.
“She told him not to turn around and come back, but that’s just not his way,” Kevin said.
Shortly after the crash, Brittany said she saw ambulances whiz eastbound on FM544, unaware that Trevor’s Chevy Malibu was up ahead. Trevor was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. His passenger and best friend, Steven Massey, suffered a broken clavicle but was released from the hospital Sunday.
‘I’m gonna marry that man’
On Saturday, Brittany placed a cross on the side of FM544 where Trevor died.
A day or so later, a friend of Brittany’s added to the small pile of remembrances a male teddy bear. Linked in its arms was a female teddy bear, which now belongs to Brittany.
Trevor and Brittany were inseparable, said both of their parents.
The two dated for about two and a half years, growing so alike that Kevin considered them to have “the same exact personality.”
Brittany’s mom, Sharon Altom, remembers Trevor as shy and respectful, never accepting food or drinks in her home except for his favorite cold drink, lemonade.
He drank seven glasses of lemonade at Brittany’s homecoming dinner, she remembered.
Brittany sat quietly as family and friends discussed her high school boyfriend. The two had been committed since their first date freshman year.
“When she came to me after their first date, she said, ‘I’m gonna marry that man,” Sharon Altom said, with tears in her eyes.
‘I couldn’t get there soon enough’
The tragic news of Trevor’s car accident rippled through the family, its members spread across California, Texas and Michigan.
Danny Mata, Trevor’s cousin, was aboard the U.S.S. Ronald Regan when he got the news. Mata couldn’t leave the ship when his grandfather died in April because he was stationed near Korea. But with this devastating news, his commander allowed him to leave their ship, now stationed off the coast of California.
Mata and 29 other passengers were flown in a two-propeller plane to San Diego — an air carrier called a C.O.D. (unofficially coined a “catapult of death” by Mata’s relatives.)
He watched the safety video — including “scary” references unlike most plane protocols, he said, such as: “In case of an emergency landing, do not use your seat cushion.”
When the plane shot into the air, Mata’s strap wasn’t pulled tight enough and he shot toward the seat in front of him.
“I’m dangling there,” he said. “The air just gets knocked out of you. You can’t scream, even if you wanted to.”
After a much more tame flight from San Diego to Dallas, Mata arrived Monday — barely, he said.
“I couldn’t get there soon enough,” Mata said.
‘The safest one to do the damage’
A shy Trevor — who logged 4,000 texts last month because he doesn’t like to talk on the phone — still managed to get himself in trouble a few times, said Steve Kruske, Trevor’s uncle.
Trevor’s family members laughed as they remembered young Trevor on his first trip on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). The family members were skilled snow skiers, but Trevor didn’t have as much luck on dry land, they remembered.
Within one week of vacation in Michigan, Trevor and his siblings managed to back a brand-new ATV into the neighbor’s shed one day and run it into a tree the next.
None of the children would confess to the crime, except Trevor.
“Who wrecked my machine?” asked Julie Kruske, Trevor’s aunt, who found her new toy bent and almost broken.
A cautious Trevor approached her, she remembered: “‘I didn’t wreck it, but I kinda hit that tree over there,’ he said. Poor Trevor. He was probably the safest one to do the damage,” Julie said.
‘A statistics master’
Trevor’s memorial service will be at First Baptist Carrollton, 2400 N. Josey Lane. The family and friends will also hand out wallet-size pictures of Trevor and burnt orange “Hook ‘em Horns” bracelets with Trevor’s name on them.
“He wanted to go to UT so bad, he couldn’t see straight,” Kevin said.
Trevor was a “statistics master,” Kristin said, and could spout off numbers for almost any basketball, football or hockey team. Had he attended the University of Texas, Trevor wanted to study sports journalism, Kevin said.
Trevor is survived by his father, Kevin Schor, and his wife, Kristin; his mother, Cara Little and her husband, Curtis; four siblings, Devin Schor, Crystal Schor, Erin Murphy and Wesley Little; three sets of grandparents, Lee and Roy Hillman, Wayne and Ina Strange, and Ronald and Patricia Schor; and many aunts, uncles and cousins.
