Bluffton mother grateful for community support as memorial crosses honor her daughter

BLUFFTON, S.C. (WTOC) - What started out as a request in an ask and answer Facebook group asking for memorial crosses to be made turned into hundreds of comments of people surrounding the family of Maya Washington with love and support.

Washington was an 18-year-old who was killed in a car crash back in September. She was a passenger in a car with two other people, who were coming home from a car show in Brunswick.

“She was a bright light,” Maya’s mother, Amy Mitchell, said. “She smiled from the inside out, and she focused on who she was on the inside most.”

According to police, the car picked up speed, ignored a stop sign, and flew off the road in McIntosh County, off exit 58.

The car overturned several times and ejected two people, while Washington was in the car and had to be taken out by first responders.

Her mother says the car was racing another car on the road, and the two cars were going over 100 miles per hour.

Two teenagers, Joaquin Garcia and Kalen Washington, are charged in the crash.

Garcia, the driver of the car Washington was in, is charged with Homicide by Vehicle, among other charges.

Washington was allegedly in the other car that was racing that night.

Originally, he was charged with misdemeanors, but the District Attorney is now considering felony charges.

Mitchell didn’t visit the scene until nearly two months later, and when she went with her son, they found Maya’s phone, which is expected to be a crucial piece of evidence.

“Justice has to be served because my daughter trusted a friend, and what he chose to do on that highway cost my daughter her life,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell says that the last few months have been difficult knowing that her daughter is no longer there, but she knows that her daughter would want her to keep going and spread her message to the masses.

“Maya would want people to practice grace, practice kindness, and to find people in your life that you need to forgive,” Mitchell said. “For Maya, everywhere she went with her smile and kindness, she left an afterglow, and we are going to keep her afterglow shining everywhere we can.”

Mitchell says that one thing Maya loved was butterflies.

So, they did a butterfly release after her funeral, and one stuck around with the family for several days until it died on the day of her cremation.

That butterfly is now in a box frame in Maya’s room, as a way for the family to always have a piece of her with them.

“That’s who she was, that’s what she represented, that transformation into something beautiful.”

Multiple people have already volunteered to make the crosses following the post, so one will eventually stand at the crash site, and another will sit behind the family’s home.

The family says they also plan on continuing to keep her name alive through community events in the future, which will feature a butterfly release and scholarship opportunities for students.