Driver's tweets shed light on final moments before death

MARIETTA, Ga. — Less than an hour before he died in a fatal car crash, 19-year-old Stephen Nolasco, of Marietta, tweeted a message to a friend about a project.

The tweet was sent at 2:33 a.m. on Sunday.

Cobb County police said just after 3:20a.m., Nolasco lost control of his car on Sandy Plains Road, plowed through a brick sign and crashed into a group of trees.

His car burst into flames, causing his death and the death of his best friend and passenger, 18-year old Matthew Bennett, of Marietta.

Friends said the accident is just a short distance from Bennett’s home and that Nolasco was about to drop him off.

“I just can’t imagine what his parents are going through,” Lisa Meslo told Channel 2’s Shae Rozzi.

Meslo’s son graduated from Sprayberry High School with the two young men last year.

“His parents are really great people. This is so senseless. They're both just really, really, really great kids," she said.

Cobb County police have yet to release their preliminary findings of how fast the driver may have been traveling before the accident.

A police spokesperson told Rozzi that toxicology tests will be performed to determine if alcohol was a factor.

Throughout the day other friends and former high school classmates came to the scene of the crash to pay their respects.

Garrett Reed had a math class with Bennett but said he knew both of them.

He told Rozzi that he hoped both died quickly and that neither suffered.

“No parent should have to bury their child,” he said.

Just four days before the accident, Nolasco tweeted, “Let us live forever or let us die young.”

A prayer service will be held at the scene of the crash on Sandy Plains Road and Kinjac Drive Tuesday at 6p.m.

Funeral arrangements are still being made.

WSBTV