Deaths Of Local Teens Leave Small Town Mourning

ALVORD (CBSDFW.COM) - An entire community is mourning the death of two young girls. Samantha Rogers, 17, and Delaney Mancil, 15, died Thursday night when a work truck slammed head-on into their car.

The chain reaction accident happened on Highway 380, just west of Denton, and involved four vehicles.

The girls were on their way back home to Alvord after a shopping trip in Denton when the crash happened. "Life is over in a blink of an eye, or it can be," said Delaney's mother, Debbie Mancil. "You should take the chance to tell the people that you love, that you love them and that you care, because that's what she did."

Debbie Mancil said she has always known her daughter's life would have special meaning. In March, the 15-year-old survived a car crash with a train. Her mom said she had just picked up a friend who had been drinking and needed a sober driver. "God saved her because there was a purpose for her life, I didn't know what that purpose was," she explained. "She [Delaney] stopped a lot of kids from drinking and driving."

Debbie Mancil said her daughter had aspirations of graduating from high school a year early, attending college, and then becoming a pediatric oncologist, but those are dreams Delaney will never realize. "God needed her before she got that done," her mother said.

Both Delaney and Samantha Rogers were active in school, in the community and in church.

"There's not any getting over this, it's just getting through it," said Bill Cleveland, Pastor of First Baptist Church Alvord, where both girls attended. "They were beautiful girls, so full of life. It's hard to imagine they're not present with us."

Friends of the two girls wore purple ribbons to school Friday. It was a favorite color for both. "Several of the kids expressed they never imagined they could feel this much pain," Cleveland said.

The teenagers' deaths have rocked the small, close-knit, community where they lived.

As family and friends pulled together, the pastor said there is some comfort knowing the girls are still together, only now in heaven. "I suppose the only comfort is knowing they're not a 'was' they are an 'is', they are present with the Lord," said Cleveland.

The Alvord High School football team has a playoff game Friday night. That game will reportedly still go on. And though their hearts are heavy, some players told CBS 11 News they'll be playing for Samantha and Delaney.