Memorial held for crash victim

Summer-Lynn Mau is remembered for her joyful personality

Dozens of family and friends of Summer-Lynn Mau held a prayer memorial yesterday at the Hauula roadside where she and three other teenagers died in two traffic accidents Saturday.

"Summer Girl -- forever in our hearts," read a poster with a large photo of Mau that family members stapled to a utility pole they decorated with garlands of blue artificial roses and bright balloons in the shape of teddy bears and dolphins.

Kamehameha Highway just north of Kokololio Beach Park was where a 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier hit Mau at about 10:45 p.m. Saturday, flinging her about 50 feet to her death, said her mother, Shelly Mau.

Mau, 19, and Orem Benson Kauvaka, 16, were among a group that had been paying respects at a roadside memorial for two friends who were killed in a car crash at the same spot at 4:25 a.m. Saturday morning.

With his arms around Mau's brother, Kaimana, 15, and a cousin who had been at the roadside when she died, Barry Beatty urged them yesterday not to remember Mau as she died, but as she lived.

"Live life for Summer from this day on," said Beatty, who is a brother of Mau's mother, Shelly Mau. "Remember the things she did to make us laugh -- to bring joy to our lives."

Also attending yesterday's memorial was one of the 15-year-old boys -- T.J. Manu -- injured in the Saturday morning wreck. The boy was visibly shaken but had no obvious signs of injury from the accident that claimed the lives of Pepe Naupoto, 15, and Alithia Ah Nee, 16.

A Kahuku High School ninth-grader, Manu is recovering at his Kahuku home from a small portion of his spine being chipped off and receiving facial cuts and abrasions in a car crash in Hauula on Saturday, said his mother, Kesaia Manu.

"Time will heal," she said. "Emotionally he's taking it day by day."

"He spent a lot of time with the family," she said. "Being around them is helping him."

The accidents are "very unfortunate, and we're still trying to make sense of the whole thing," she said.

Services for Alithia Amoe Kawaipuilani Ah Nee, 16, of Utah will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Greater Mount Zion Pentecostal Church in Hauula. Visitation begins at 8 a.m., and burial will be at noon at Laie Cemetery. Ah Nee was born in Kahuku and is survived by parents Alithia Ah Nee and Siosifa Vakauta; brothers Mosese Vakauta, Warren Molale and Florencio and Nicolas Bautista; and sisters Charleen Pei, Maile Toilolo and Natalie Hanohano.

Services for Naupoto, 15, will be held next week in Euless, Texas, said Olini Maile, the aunt with whom he lived in Hauula. She said there will not be a local service.

Services for Orem "Benson" Kauvaka, 16, will be at noon Monday at the Laie North Stake Center, said his mother, Saane Kauvaka. Viewing for family will begin at 8 a.m. and for others at 9 a.m., she said.

Services for Summer-Lynn Mau, 19, will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 2 at Laie First Ward Chapel, preceded by visitation 9-11 a.m., Shelly Mau said.

Police suspect that Naupoto was the driver of the stolen 1990 Honda Acura that slammed into two utility poles and a fire hydrant on Kamehameha Highway.

Tests conducted on Naupoto's body by the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office showed that his blood alcohol level was 0.083 percent, which is legally drunk. As a minor, he should not have had any alcohol in his system, and anyone who sold or gave it to him could face charges, said police Capt. Frank Fujii.