Phone tracker leads NY father to heartbreaking discovery

A New York father tragically found out that his two teenage daughters had died in a car accident Aug. 1 when he located their phones at the crash site after they stopped responding to his messages.

Sisters Hailey Trumble, 19, and Shelby Trumble, 17, were killed in a wreck near Ira, NY while driving back from Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester.

According to authorities at the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office, the girls' Chevy Cobalt hit a Jeep Cherokee head-on around 6 PM after their car went over a hill and swerved into the wrong lane on their way home to Fulton. The Jeep's driver, Robin Latham, 59, was severely injured but is recovering at Syracuse University Hospital.

The girls' father, Brian Trumble, 45, started to panic when his daughters didn't come home on time and weren't answering his messages. He thought they might be in a dead zone, so he opened the "Find My Friends" app to see where they were. The app showed their position on Ferris Road in Cato, about three miles from his location.

Upon learning of an incident on Ferris Road from his girlfriend, Trumble rushed to the scene but was stopped by a police officer blocking access. He was then informed that two girls had been involved in an accident, with one confirmed deceased. "I just sat on my bumper and I couldn't stand up," Trumble told People magazine, recounting the moment he received the news.

Authorities later revealed that Shelby had died instantly in the crash, while Hailey was still alive when first responders arrived. Fireman Josh Lovejoy reportedly comforted Hailey in her final moments.

Sheriff Brian Schneck stated that the investigation into the Cayuga County crash is ongoing. "It's much too early to say exactly what happened, and what caused this crash and what factors were involved," Schneck told CNY Central. "But we are looking at every piece of evidence that we can." He added that there was no evidence of intoxication among the drivers involved.

The Trumble sisters had recently graduated from high school and were pursuing a cosmetology program at Oswego BOCES. Their obituaries highlighted their "tremendous empathy and love" for animals, noting their volunteer work with the CNY Cat Coalition. Just days before the accident, they had rescued two kittens that had been thrown from a car.

Brian Trumble shared that both his daughters were organ donors, reflecting their lifelong desire to help others. "They touched so many people," he said. "Everybody that met ’em just loved them. They were just super sweet and kind and really smart, very smart. They were pretty much just figuring out what they wanted to do."