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High school sweethearts, missionaries among crash victims

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May 13, 1996
Web posted at: 7:00 a.m. EDT

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- As rescue workers made their way through the thick swamp that swallowed ValueJet flight 592 Sunday, a clearer picture emerged of some of the 109 people presumed to have died in Saturday's crash.

Among those listed as passengers on the flight were a Baptist church organist and his wife on a dream vacation, a young man preparing for missionary work in his native Venezuela and a mother and her daughter who had become "real friends" in recent years.

Families of the victims were struggling to cope with news of the crash that took their loved ones away a day before Mother's Day.

"There's no evidence of the plane. It's gone," said Bret Rugg, 41, of Richmond, Indiana, whose wife Terri was on the plane. He had taken his two sons, ages 5 and 11, to meet their mother on her return from a cruise she made as a travel agency owner. "I don't know what I'm going to do," he said.

ValuJet Airlines Inc. President Lewis Jordan expressed sympathy for families of the victims at a Sunday morning news conference in Miami. "Every human being in every seat of the airplane is a life and a loved one with stories to tell, with friends, with places to go. It's Mother's Day weekend, we know that."

McNitts

Indeed, there are stories to tell -- at least 109.

A family of five, the McNitts, was returning home from a cruise in South Florida. A former Kansas City cheerleader, Lisa Pearson, who had just won a beauty pageant, was returning from a trip to Florida, part of her prize.

Dan and Linda Jarvis, a church organist and a dental hygienist, were high school sweethearts who lost touch in college. After separate failed marriages they were reunited and married in 1993.

"They were just so happy," said Sharon Jarvis Moss, Dan's sister. "I wouldn't know how to describe it, but they were clearly meant to be together."

After years of planning, the Jarvises were returning from their dream vacation -- a Caribbean cruise -- aboard ValuJet Flight 592.

Kim Rennolds would have turned 21 this Mother's Day. Instead, authorities were searching the Florida Everglades on Sunday for the bodies of Rennolds and her 49-year-old mother, Donna.

The mother and daughter, who had developed a closer relationship in recent years, spent the week before Mother's Day scuba diving off the Florida Keys. They were returning home to Michigan.

Carlos Gonzalez is also listed as one of the passengers. He came to the United States from Venezuela less than two years ago to get the education he needed to return to his homeland as a missionary.

Gonzalez, 24, had returned from a weeklong trip with three friends and his niece to Venezuela when they boarded ValuJet Flight 592.

"They were on a fact-finding mission for future missionary- type trips," said Lee Rogers, a friend. "He was following what God was calling him to do."

Roger and Dana Lane, who also lived near Atlanta, had traveled to Venezuela with Gonzalez. So had Ray Lathem, a pastor's son. He also was considering a career in the ministry, Rogers said.

After marrying less than a year ago, Roger Lane, 36, and Dana, 26, taught English to Hispanic children in the Atlanta area. They were considering doing the same in Central America, a friend said.

Gonzalez's niece, Lila Viloleta, accompanied her uncle on his return trip so she could spend more time with him. He visited with his parents before returning to Miami last weekend.

"That was one small consolation," Rogers said. "He got to see his parents."

Ella Mitchell was always one of the first to volunteer when the Rev. James Crowley or anyone else at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Miami asked for help. At the recent parish fish fry, it was Mitchell who cooked more than 200 fish and 150 chickens.

Mitchell, 58, knew just about everyone at St. Francis, a small parish of about 150 families, Crowley said. There wasn't anyone she didn't know or someone's life she hadn't touched, he said.

Family always came first for Ella Mitchell, her husband said. "She looked after the kids first and me and her later. You just don't find people like that."

CNN Correspondent Brian Cabell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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