GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Thieves have ruined a wood bench honoring two Oregon teenagers who died in a plane crash last year.
The Daily Courier reports the bench is at the entrance to a field at Grants Pass High School, where Max Belnap and Ryan Merker competed at sports. They died in a plane crash off the Oregon coast on July 4, 2016.
Belnap’s younger brother Lucas made the memorial bench as part of his Eagle Scout project. It was dedicated at the end of the school year.
Thieves stole two large slabs of elm from the bench over the weekend, leaving just a metal frame.
Cheryl Belnap says the project was a labor of love for her son, and the vandalism is devastating.
