Family of teen who died on Christmas Day says it’s like ‘a nightmare’

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Following an accident on Greenville Loop Road on Christmas Day, one teen has died and two are being treated at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

“He tells you, I’ll be back,” Cruz Leon’s sister Karolay Candelario said.”Then he leaves and the next day you wake up and he’s not there anymore.”

17 year old Kevin Bryan Cruz Leon was a senior at John T. Hoggard High School.

“He was just perfect. He was a perfect brother. He cared a lot for us and for everyone,” Candelario said.

She says it doesn’t feel real.

“I really wish the was just a nightmare. That this wasn’t true,” she said. “I just wish he was still alive. He had so much of him that he could still give the world.”

Candelario says her mother is a nail tech and her brother planned on going to school to be a barber after graduation.

“We were going to have a family salon…but things change,” she said.

Cruz Leon had two younger siblings as well. They are left with a lot of questions too.

“I don’t get why he had to die like this, he was innocent. He never did
anything really bad,” Cruz Leon’s younger brother Joshua said. “So, I don’t know why he had to die..he was a good brother. He loved his family.”

“Bryan was a good brother and he loved me,” Cruz Leon’s younger sister Sophia said.

Cruz Leon’s oldest sister says she wishes she could tell him a few more things.

“I love him. I love him a lot. And he is my person and that he is great,” Candelario said.

Kevin Bryan Cruz Leon’s memorial service is scheduled at noon on Saturday, December 28 at St. Mark Catholic Church on Eastwood Road.

At the service, a friend said Cruz Leon helped him through a really difficult time in his life.

“I miss him and it hurts to know that he’s not here anymore,” Hoggard High senior Ky’shawn White said. “If he could speak to other people the way he spoke to me, help other people the way he helped me the world could genuinely be a better place. It hurts to know that he’s gone.”

Cruz Leon’s sister has started a GoFundMe page to fund his funeral in the Dominican Republic, where most of his family lives. It is the family’s wish to lay Cruz Leon to rest in his home country. If you would like to donate, please follow this link.