Memorial erected at site of plane crash
Published 5:14 pm Tuesday, December 13, 2011
It’s been more than five months since a Florida-bound plane crashed less than a mile from Demopolis’ airport.
The crash, which claimed the lives of seven members of the Tuetenberg family, came to a violent rest on a nearly 3000-acre hunting camp July 9.
Now, where a burned wreckage once lay, stands a 10-foot-tall memorial to the family who lost their lives and loved ones that summer evening.
“I didn’t know, and I still don’t really,” said Kenny Freeman, who has managed the property where the plane came to rest and led investigators to the scene, “but when they crashed on the place where you live, you feel a connection. It’s heart wrenching.”
Freeman and property owner Alex Jones erected a small 10-foot memorial to the Tuetuenbergs on the crash site and are hopeful the small symbol could bring some closure to those the Tuetuenbergs have left behind.
“We told the family after the crash we’d be glad to have them down here if they felt the need to come to the site,” Freeman said, “and we told them we planned to erect a memorial.”
Freeman said the family hasn’t made a visit to the site yet and he wasn’t sure if they ever would.
“We told the family’s attorney that we’d finished the memorial and he said he’d let the family know,” he said. “We’d even be glad to put them up in the cabins if they needed it.”
Pilot, Fred Teutenberg, 42; wife, Terresa, who was in her mid-30s; daughter Emma, 2; son Peyton, 4; daughter Ellie, 6; son Brendon, 9; and son Will, 10 were all killed in the crash. The couple’s oldest daughter, Ashlei Bruewer, 16, a native of St. Louis, was not aboard the plane.