Jennifer Carrigan – Two teens brutally murdered on a prom date – Jennifer Carrigan and Steven Furtado – were stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend, Reyes Carrillo, and then her brother Billy Carrigan died in a car crash rushing home on Mothers Day after hearing the news.
The triple tragedy involving Jennifer Carrigan is the saddest Mothers Day imaginable because Jennifer’s mother is the one who found the bodies of her daughter and boyfriend on Mothers Day morning in her own home.
And then to lose her only other child, Billy Carrigan – a 20-year old junior at UC-Berkeley, in a tragic car accident while rushing home to comfort his mother is just horrific.
Jennifer Carrigan was set to graduate next month and planned to study medicine at Chico State University, specializing in anesthesiology. Jennifer was a popular student in the small town of Chester in northern California – a member of the girls softball team and the marching band.
She had met Steven Furtado at an honors band event in Sacramento two months ago and the young couple quickly fell in love. Jennifer broke up with fellow Chester High School senior Reyes Carrillo and spent as much time as she could with Steven, who lived over an hour away in the small town of Willows in mountainous Glenn County.
Steven Furtado was a member of Willows High School honors band, a lineman for the Willows Honkers football team, a Little League umpire, and an Eagle Scout. He last played trumpet for the band during Saturday’s Lamb Derby Parade before heading to Chester for his fatal prom date.
Furtado was described as “an all-American boy” who always smiled, by his cousin, Glenn County sheriff’s deputy Brandy McDonald. “He was a wonderful, beautiful person,” she said. “He knew everybody. He was loved by everybody.”
The bodies of the teens, Jennifer Carmen Carrigan, 18, of Chester and Steven Daniel Furtado, 18, of Willows were found by the girl’s mother in the Carrigan home just after noon Sunday, according to Gerry Hendrick with the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office. Both had been stabbed multiple times.
News of the Mothers Day killings of Carrigan and Furtado spread quickly through Chester, a town of about 2,300, which is located about 150 miles north of Sacramento.
More than 100 young people and adults packed the Lake Almanor Community Church on Sunday evening to talk about the victims and to share memories. Jennifer Carrigan’s friends remembered her as a “very well-loved girl” with “happy eyes,” said Paul Bernard, the youth pastor, who helped organize the event and who also spent much of Monday counseling grief-stricken students at Chester High School.
Jennifer Carrigan’s mother then faced the hard decision Monday night of taking her critically injured son, Billy Victor Carrigan, 20, off of life support at a hospital in Chico, California.
The California Highway Patrol reported that Carrigan – hurrying home after receiving news of his sister’s death while at UC-Berkeley near San Francisco – was traveling east along a mountain road just before 7 p.m. at an unknown speed that was too fast for a sharp left curve marked at 30 mph.
He traveled off the roadway at the curve, became airborne off the embankment and crashed into several trees. After the single-car accident, Carrigan was airlifted to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, where he was placed on life support with massive internal injuries.
Jennifer Carrigan’s brother died Monday night, two days after her prom date and the day after Mothers Day.
Four hours after the bodies were discovered, Plumas County deputies arrested Reyes Carrillo, an 18-year-old classmate of Jennifer Carrigan’s at Chester High School and her ex-boyfriend, authorities said. He was held on suspicion of two counts of homicide.
Carrillo is in custody at the Plumas County Jail and was arraigned in Superior Court Monday where bail was set at $1 million.
Autopsies were also conducted Monday on the two teens slain on their prom date.
And that’s the really sad story of the prom date murder of Jennifer Carrigan.
Tags: billy carrigan, jennifer carrigan, reyes carrillo, steven furtado, teens killed on prom date, triple tragedy
May 14th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
God, that’s just so awful that I’m at a loss for words to describe how terrible this tragedy is for both communities.
Jennifer, you’re in our thoughts and prayers! And Billy, God bless you too man!
Steven Furtado sounds like a wonderful guy who would have made Jennifer feel very special. Go with God son…
May 14th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Picture of Jennifer Carrigan
For all those who were wondering, this was Jennifer Carrigan…
May 14th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Picture of Billy Carrigan
And this was Billy Carrigan, next to the pickup truck he crashed while trying to hurry home to comfort his mom on Mothers Day after Jennifer’s horrific murder.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am
THis has to be the most incredible story of saddness I have read about….
May 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am
My condolonces to the family, big,big lose,
death to Reyes Carrillo
May 15th, 2008 at 11:58 am
This is such a tragedy, my heart goe’s out to this family.
My deepest sympathies.
June 7th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Jennifer Carrigan is one hot piece of @$$, and from what the story says, she was getting it on from a young age, 17? damn!
I mean, a woman like that is worth killing for …
right?
July 4th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Jennifer was my best friend growing up in Chester until i moved across the country. I wish I had stayed in touch with her. Jodie, I am so sorry for your two losses I dont even know where to begin. We love you so much and we truly truly miss jenny and billy.
December 14th, 2008 at 7:02 am
for all you idiots reyes did NOT kill jenny and steven! i know all four people involved and when reyes left that party he was with me and he was with me ALL night. jenny and steven were murdered but reyes did not do it and they werent in LOVE they didnt meet in sac they met in chester and went on two dates. jenny went to prom with reyes not steven i have the pictures. she new steven for two weeks… he just happened to be the drunk one that passed out on the floor in her room!
January 9th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Heather, you are a complete and total ignorant idiot!!!! Come out of your fantasy with Reyes and enter the REAL world. If you were with him all night….then you should be in jail too for murder!!!!
January 13th, 2009 at 6:33 am
fuck u asshole jenny was murdered in chester. how do you explain the fact that we were at a party in westwood and didnt go to chester until eight in the morning when my sister picked us up? WHEN SHE WAS ALREADY DEAD U FUCKING IDIOT. not everything the cops say is true. and hes getting out.
January 17th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Are you on drugs or something??? Because you are pretty stupid if not!!
January 25th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
ok..whoever wrote that up there about her being worth killing for is one idiot. thats got to be the most unsympathetic thing i’ve ever heard. why would you even write some thing like that? do you even know what the pain of their families are feeling? i bet you dont, if you did you wouldnt have wrote that.
February 1st, 2009 at 3:05 am
Jenny was a really sweet girl. you would always see her smiling. she would brighten up every room she walked in to. Everyone will miss jenny and everything about her…
We will always remeber you jenny
February 18th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I played Softball with Jenny she was an amazing girl. Everyone in Chester misses her. What happened was very tragic!! Ang what reyes did to her and Steven is unforgivalbe. I new Reyes and Jenny and it is all very sad. One day we are all joking around and than the next I hear the horrible news. And Heather The cops are right. Reyes is not getting out of jail. And Reyes confessed to it.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Some of you people are terrible liars!!! Sure some was but I was Jenny’s best best friend. She meant the world to me. We did everything together. Heather, i do not know who you are nor do I care what I do care is that you know that Jenny and Steven did fucking meet in Sacramento. They met at Festival Band. How do I know you ask? I WAS WITH HER!!! I WAS IN THE ROOM WHEN THEY FIRST MET AND JENNY AND STEVEN REALLY LIKED EACH OTHER. ALSO, HOW CAN YOU LIE AND SAY THAT JENNY AND REYES WENT TO THE PROM!! SHE DID NOT GO!! SHE STAYED AT HOME WITH STEVEN AND I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I WAS AT THE PROM!! IT HURTS ME BEYOND COMPRHENSION THAT YOU WOULD SAY SUCH LIES!! WE ALL KNOW THAT IT WAS REYES AND FOR ONE THING HE CONFESSED!! I THINK THAT EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT SHOULD FUCK OFF!! I miss Jenny with all my heart. I think about it most of the time, everyday. Everytime I try to play my music, me heart breaks all over again. I LOVE YOU JENNY AND MISS YOU MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW!! God bless you Jodie, I pray about you daily and I will never forget band trips. I love you.
April 12th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Wow, I was just doing a google search of my name, Jennifer Carrigan, and came across this arcticle. This has got to be the sadest thing I’ve ever heard. God Bless the Carrigan family and I’m so sorry this happened.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
i’ve known steven since kindergarten, that was 14 years ago.
i miss steven with all my heart. he meant the world to me. he was one of the best guys anyone could ask for.
i too was a festival band, and know for a fact that they met down there. i was with steven the day before he died. we were in lamb derby that day. i don’t even remember the last thing i said to him. probably “see you monday” considering we had an officer’s meeting. he’s the only one who would show up before me.
and in response to the person who said that reyes should die, why should he die. yes, he did it. yes, he should be punished. but if you think about it, his mother would be just as upset as Jodie if she lost her child. you have to think about the parents too. reyes should pay for what he has done. he should have to sit in prison, with no parole ever, and think about what he has done and how many lives he has ruined.
i had 3 classmates die my last 2 years of high school. and there were 2 girls who died when i was in 8th grade. they were in 6th and 4th. i’ve been to too many funerals. jenny and steven should not have been taken from us. i miss you guys. love you sooo much.