MODESTO-

Less than 24 hours after the light of three young lives was extinguished violently in Modesto, struggling loved ones lit candles for Mariah Boucher.

Her broken-hearted grandfather, Joe Rivera, wept in front of about one hundred people gathered at a crash-site memorial.

Boucher died Thursday along with Donovan King and Kameron Jackson after the 16-year-olds allegedly ran from police in a stolen car.

Officers who had originally tried to stop the black Nissan the teens were in for a missing front plate, ended their pursuit before the crash.

Those officers became rescuers after they found the Nissan up against a tree and the teens in trouble.

They were able to free the boys.

Mariah was trapped inside as the car burned.

“She was the most toughest girl, probably even tougher than all the boys,” friend Teresa Jones said.

A tomboy, who fiercely followed her own path, friends and family gathered as the spot where Mariah died praised the independent spirit that led her to play Titan football.

They also questioned how that spirit could have turned criminal.

“It doesn’t sound like her at all. I’ve never known her to do anything like that. She’s always had smiles on her face, and just living life and things like that. Never known her to break the law.  Really shocking for all of us,” Titan coach Timmy Jones said.

And as he grappled with his grief and the facts behind the  loss of his beloved daughter, Mariah’s father was still able to look for a lesson in all this for all the young people she knew and those she wasn’t able to meet.

“And we just ask that you have mercy and that you show them a better way God,” prayed Dale Boucher as he gasped for breath between sobs.

“That you show them a better way father Lord.”

A trust fund has been established to help the Boucher family with Mariah’s burial.

If you’d like to help, just go to ‘GiveForward.com‘ and search for Mariah Sara Michelle Boucher.