Husband/father of victims in house is a 1996 Hillsborough High grad
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Hillsborough was touched by a tragedy Monday morning when a small jet crashed into a home in a subdivision in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Marie Gemmell and her two sons, Cole, 3, and infant, Devin, were killed in the home. Surviving are her husband, Kenneth, and the couple’s oldest child, Arabelle, 5.
Kenneth Gemmell is a 1996 graduate of Hillsborough High School.
A fundraising effort has begun on www.gofundme.com/gemmellfamily.
All of the money is pledged for Kenneth and Arabelle, "who have lost most of their family, their home and life as they once knew," the site says. The money will be donated for funeral expenses and all additional expenses they will incur during this time of tragedy.
At 12:52 p.m. Tuesday, the site had raised $164,786 of a goal of $250,000 from 3,908 people in 19 hours. The amount was rising by the minute; at noon, the figure had been $154,106 from 3,652 people.
In the 1996 Hillsborough High School yearbook, Mr. Gemmell was said to be a math, amnesty and bio teams member and a soccer player in his first two years of school. He was listed with a Stage Coach Way, Belle Mead, address, and had memories of going to shows, skating, snowboarding and "going off the road."
Also perishing in Monday’s crash of the twin-engine plane were the pilot and CEO of a North Carolina health research firm.
The crash occurred as the plane was making an instrument approach to Montgomery County Airport, according to reports of a news conference of a National Transportation Safety Board official near the wreckage. News reports said witnesses said the plane appeared out of control when it went down about 1 mile from the airport and hit three houses in all.
Ms. Gemmell and her sons were found in a second-floor bathroom, said Pete Piringer, the public information officer for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.
The plane’s "black box," holding the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, have been recovered from the wreckage.