Gage Bogart saved up for months to buy the high-powered car suspected of poisoning the teenager and his girlfriend to death in a Drayton Valley parking lot, says the boy’s grandfather.
“They were overtaken by carbon monoxide, that was it. There was nothing else. That’s all it takes,” said Garry Bogart in an interview with CBC News Wednesday morning. “Carbon monoxide is a silent killer.”
Gage Bogart, 17, was found by police clinging to life in the driver’s seat of his 2001 Volkswagen Jetta around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 21. He died in hospital four days later.
His girlfriend, Shaina Ridenour, 16, was declared dead after being found in the passenger seat of the idling car.
RCMP are describing their deaths as a “very tragic” accident but have not specified cause of death.
Bogart’s mother grew concerned that night when her son didn’t come home on time, the grandfather said. She eventually called police, and helped them locate her son’s car by pinging the GPS tracker on his cellphone, he explained.
Both Bogart and Ridenour were found slumped in the front seats.
Bogart, who still had a faint pulse, was rushed to Edmonton’s Misericordia hospital in critical condition.
‘They both fell asleep, I guess, and didn’t wake up’ – Garry Bogart
After scans determined he had no brain activity, Bogart was pulled off life support on Christmas Day. He died a few hours later.
Police officers at the scene noted a strong odour of exhaust fumes inside the car and the vehicle is scheduled for a forensic mechanical inspection on Wednesday.
“They were just parked and were sitting there chatting, listening to the stereo,” the grandfather said the family was told. “They both fell asleep, I guess, and didn’t wake up.”
“It’s terrible,” he added. “All kids do the same things but not all kids turn out with the same fate.”
The teenager had a passion for cars and trucks and always dreamed of owning a vehicle with a supercharger — an air compressor that increases the pressure of air supplied to an internal combustion engine, giving it more power.
For months, he had saved from his part-time job at Home Hardware to buy the German-manufactured Jetta.
“He had a little truck before this happened and he always wanted to have a little European car that had a supercharger on it,” said Garry Bogart.
“He had just bought this little car and no one in our family had a chance to much look at it because he was always with his friends, and that was the car that had the obvious exhaust leak.”
Bogart -— who lived with his parents and 15-year-old little brother in Drayton Valley — was an avid athlete. He started playing hockey as a three-year-old and soon graduated to BMX bikes.
He was fearless on the ice, and the track.
“I don’t know if there were any other kids that could do double back flips off the back of a bike, but he could,” said his grandfather.
“His parents were tireless to keep him in sports in winter and summer. You don’t find too many parents like that, that spend the time with their children as much as they did, and it showed.”
Shaina Ridenour had a passion for sports and is being fondly remembered as the ‘glue’ that held her family together. (Caitlin Ridenour)
Bogart said his grandson will be remembered as a hard worker, a loveable young man with a promising future.
“He had this big smile, that wherever he went he was liked,” he said, adding his death is “just devastating” for those who knew him.
“I just want everybody to know how much of a respectful man he was, the kind of man that the world needs a hell of a lot more of.”
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized for Bogart. But a celebration of life for Ridenour takes place Wednesday, at the MacKenzie Conference Centre, 5745 45th Avenue, in Drayton Valley, with the service scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
An obituary for Ridenour — who had two brothers and five sisters — describes the Drayton Valley Community Outreach School student as vivacious and loving.
“She was a spunky ray of sunshine whose biggest smile could light up any room. Her indescribable laugh will be missed,” reads the obituary. “She will be incredibly missed and forever loved.”