Cape teenager remembered as cheerful, funny

~ Police say evidence of alcohol was found in the car.

The teenager who died in a Sunday evening auto accident was remembered Monday as a cheerful, popular student at the Cape Girardeau Alternative Education Center.

Eric R. Neighbors, 19, of Cape Girardeau graduated just 10 days before the car he was driving overturned on Mount Auburn Road. The school's director, Mike Dorris, said Neighbors' death shocked faculty members as the word spread of the accident.

"He was a special kid with a great sense of humor," Dorris said.

Neighbors wasn't a perfect student, Dorris said, but he never sought to escape blame for his actions. "Anytime he would do something he shouldn't have done, he always took it like a man," he said. "He always apologized and took responsibility. He was just a kid who had great potential."

Neighbors died Sunday evening around 6:30 p.m. when the car he was driving went out of control on Mount Auburn Road, Cape Girardeau police spokesman Sgt. Barry Hovis said. Neighbors was driving north, Hovis said, when the car went off the right side of the road, overturned and came to rest on the driver's side.

The two passengers, Thomas M. Conway, 20, and Michael L. Willingham, 19, of Cape Girardeau, were seriously injured, Hovis said. No one in the car was wearing a seat belt, Hovis said, and two of the young men were partially ejected from the car.

Partially consumed containers of alcohol were found in the vehicle, Hovis said. No test results showing whether anyone riding in the car had been drinking were available Monday evening, he said.

The injuries to both Conway and Willingham were considered life-threatening at the scene, Hovis said. Both were taken to Saint Francis Medical Center for treatment and remained hospitalized, he said.

Willingham was also a graduate of the Alternative Education Center, Dorris said. Officials of the school had received little word on his condition.

"It hit our school kind of hard," Dorris said.

Neighbors was the son of Kasey and Gladys Neighbors. A funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Ford and Sons Funeral Home on South Sprigg Street.

Students in the alternative program are on Christmas break this week, Dorris said. When classes resume, he said, there will be extra counselors on hand to help students with their grief.

"It took him a little while longer than most, but he had the perseverance to keep going and graduate," Dorris said. "The sad thing was, he didn't get to enjoy it for very long."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 126