Thursday, March 03, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Father of teen driver in fatal crash kills self

The 1987 Ford Thunderbird that Ashley Troester was driving during a fatal accident on May 9, 2002, hit a light pole in the median so hard that it split in two. The 15-year-old girl and a front-seat passenger, Natasha Keeter, died in the wreck. Photo by Gary Thompson. Ashley Troester 15-year-old was driving without license or learner's permit

David Troester, haunted by a car wreck that claimed the life of his only daughter and another Las Vegas High School student nearly three years ago, killed himself Sunday, authorities said.

Troester, 42, died after sitting in a running vehicle and inhaling carbon monoxide, according to the Clark County coroner's office.

Troester's 15-year-old daughter, Ashley, died in May 2002 when the car she was driving without a license or learner's permit broad-sided a light pole while she and four other students were on lunch break from school. The wreck also killed front-seat passenger Natasha Keeter and injured back-seat passengers Kiley Quinn, Aleisa Valdez and Ashley Biersach, who lost a leg as a result of her injuries.

"It's really sad, but all he ever wanted was to be with Ashley again," said Biersach, who considered herself Ashley Troester's best friend.

David Troester's attorney and friend, Leo Flangas, said his client never shook the devastation of losing his only daughter.

"For the past two years, he's just been struggling with her loss," Flangas said.

"He was always in despair and sad. For six months after that, he just went into a shell.

"But (he had reached a point where) he was at least getting up and going through the day. ... He was making progress. I was surprised. If I would have seen the signs, I would have done something."

An expert on suicide and depression, who asked not to be named, said there is always help available for people who need it, "but there are times when that person has made their decision and they can't be stopped."

Troester, who had worked as a construction foreman, had divorced Ashley's mother before the accident. His daughter had been the centerpiece of his life.

"That's what he lived for," said Flangas, who represented Troester when Biersach filed suit against him and the Clark County School District and alleged negligence. The school district later was dropped from the lawsuit.

Police and teens who knew Ashley Troester said her father bought her an aging Ford Thunderbird and repeatedly allowed her to drive without a license. Flangas denied that and said his client never was cited or criminally charged in connection with the wreck.

The lawsuit didn't weigh on Troester's mind, Flangas added.

"He had insurance. The lawsuit didn't mean anything," Flangas said.

"He wanted all of the girls to be compensated as much as they could."

Biersach, 19, said she never blamed David Troester for the crash. She and Ashley Troester were best friends growing up, and she knew Troester's father well, she said. Though she never was able to talk to him after the wreck, she knew he was deeply distraught.

She said she did not get the feeling that he blamed himself for the crash, but simply that the loss of his daughter devastated him.

"He felt that he could have prevented it, maybe," Biersach said.

"She was his whole life."

Biersach said she wrote David Troester a letter before she had major surgery last year. She wrote that she might die while on the operating table. She had wanted to talk to him before the operation, she said, but he sent a message through a friend that he was still too heartbroken to talk.

The friend relayed this message to Biersach: "He just can't do it. He feels so bad, he just can't talk about it."