A COMMUNITY MOURNS
<span>A Saturday night traffic accident on Route T in Missouri claimed the lives of 38-year-old Bret Chandler and 33-year-old Toree Chandler, both of Chester.</span>
<span>But it also claimed a part of the city's soul.</span>
<span>"I know the family and it totally ripped my guts out," said Chester Mayor Tom Page of the accident. "As well as the entire city's."</span>
<span>According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's crash report, the couple were in a 2002 Jeep Wrangler driving on Route T an eighth of a mile west of Woodridge Lane.</span>
<span>Bret Chandler was driving and the vehicle failed to negotiate a right curve and traveled off the right side of the road. </span>
<span>He then over-corrected, sending the Jeep off the left side of the roadway.</span> <span>The vehicle then struck the South Fork Saline Creek bed and overturned before striking several trees.</span>
<span>The couple, who were wearing their seatbelts, were pronounced dead at the scene by Perry County Ambulance paramedics.</span>
<span>The report lists the time of the accident as 9:10 p.m. Toree Chandler was pronounced dead at 9:35 p.m. and Bret Chandler at 9:37 p.m.</span>
<span>"They were great people," said Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey. "I knew both of them very well. </span> <span>"My wife was a longtime friend of Toree's and Bret and I went to school together."</span>
<span>Toree's brother, Bryan Nortin, has set up a memorial fund for the couple's children, 7-year-old Damon and 8-month-old Fallon, on gofundme.com. </span>
<span>The Chandlers' fund can be directly accessed by going to </span><span>www.gofundme.com/bv5q58. </span>
<span>The fund had more than $6,000 in it, with the goal of $20,000, from more than 100 donors as of Monday afternoon.</span> <span>An update posted to the website earlier Monday thanked those for their "unbelievable support."</span>
<span>"Toree and Bret are high school sweethearts," Nortin posted on the fund's website. "They were very fun, loving, free-spirited, caring, outgoing, giving and just an awesome couple that enjoyed life and loved smiling."</span>
<span>Nortin posted on the website that while the cause of the accident is unknown, "It is believed the couple swerved to avoid hitting an animal on the road."</span>
<span>Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Saint Johns Lutheran Church, with internment at St. John Lutheran Cemetery will follow. </span>
<span>A memorial will be held for the Chandlers from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Pechacek-McClure Funeral Home.</span>
<span>"It's a bad, bad situation," Page said. "It makes some of the things we do seem very insignificant right now."</span>
<span>Brenda Owen, principal at St. John Lutheran School in Chester, confirmed to the Herald Tribune that the Chandlers were part of the school's family. </span>Damon is to enter second grade this fall.
"We've already put some things in place to help the family," Owen said. "We want to do everything we can to help them through this tragic time."
Justin Nortin, Toree's brother, said the family was dealing with the tragedy as best they could.
"It's touch and go," he said. "Everybody's holding together, but a shocking thing like this, it's hard to tell. "My younger brother (Bryan) is leading the crew and is really a strong guy."
The full obituary for Toree and Bret Chandler will be on page 6 of this week's Herald Tribune.