Community installs memorial cross for teen killed in McIntosh County crash

McIntosh County, Ga. (WTOC) - Friends, family and supporters gathered in McIntosh County on Sunday for a cross installation in memory of 18-year-old Maya Washington.

Washington was killed in a car crash in September while riding home from a car show. The memorial is near Interstate 95 at Exit 58.

“My daughter, Maya, was an 18-year-old typical teen,” said Amy Mitchell, Washington’s mother. “Social media, she had thousands of followers. She really evolved into hair and makeup a couple of years ago. And after that, the rest was history.”

Mitchell said her daughter was bold and knew who she was.

“She loved the Lord,” Mitchell said. “She revealed a lot to us toward the end of her life. People she reached out that she felt betrayed her as a friend and offered forgiveness and grace and mercy to them. And had I only known that God was preparing her and purifying her.”

Tyler Hicks with Tyler’s Welding & Fabrication made the butterfly for the memorial, while Michael Seng built the cross. Both are from South Carolina.

Washington was a passenger in a car with two other people coming home from a car show in Brunswick when the crash happened Sept. 20 in McIntosh County.

Two teenagers, Joaquin Garcia and Kalen Washington, are charged in the crash. Garcia, the driver of the car Maya Washington was in, is charged with homicide by vehicle. Kalen Washington was allegedly in another car that was racing that night.

Mitchell said her daughter’s smile left an afterglow everywhere she went.

“A light can be turned on and off so quickly,” Mitchell said.

“But an afterglow, it just lingers. And that’s who Maya was. And I’m going to make sure that that brightness in her remains an afterglow for as long as we live.”