Conyers student, 17, killed in car crash; 2 injured

High school classmates in Rockdale County remembered Mariyam Crossley on Sunday as an outgoing girl who relished the spotlight and was on her school’s step-dancing team.

Crossley, 17, a senior at Heritage High School in Conyers, died Saturday afternoon when the car she was riding in crashed into a tree south of Conyers. Two classmates of the girl were injured in the wreck.

Sunday evening, students and parents gathered at the crash scene to memorialize Crossley with a candlelight vigil.

“Always smiling and happy and silly,” Kenyatta McLeod, a junior at Heritage who attended the vigil, described the teen. “And always wanting to be the center of attention.”

Crossley competed on Heritage’s step team, a form of dance that includes foot-stomping and clapping. She also was to have been in the school’s Homecoming Court in a couple of weeks, McLeod said.

McLeod, who lives near where Crossley died, said news of the teen’s death took some time to sink in.

“My friend called me yesterday,” she said. “It didn’t hit me. I didn’t believe it.”

The crash happened at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at Ebenezer and Potts roads, Rockdale County sheriff’s Sgt. Jodi Shupe said. The two other accident victims, 16- and 17-year-old boys whose names were not made public, were taken to area hospitals.

Shupe said Sunday that she did not know the older youth’s condition, but the 16-year-old was treated and released from Rockdale Medical Center.

The 17-year-old was driving a 2005 Nissan Altima south on Ebenezer when he lost control of the car in a curve, Shupe said. The teen overcorrected, and the vehicle rolled across the intersection at Potts and hit a tree.

The driver and Crossley were trapped inside the car; the 16-year-old escaped through a rear window, Shupe said.

A Heritage High coach who lives nearby reported the wreck after his 11-year-old son witnessed it, Shupe said.

Police may file charges against the driver, Shupe said. She cited inexperience as the probable cause of the wreck.