19-year-old victims identified in fatal west metro crash

By the time as many as 100 people gathered at the scene of a deadly crash crash in Minnetonka on Monday afternoon, they were mourning the loss of two young lives.

Family members identified the driver who died at the scene as 19-year-old Devlyn Voss, of Maplewood.

The family of his passenger, 19-year-old Marina Emms of Woodbury, confirmed to KSTP that she died at the hospital Sunday night. Her parents said she was a "special kid" and "a light people were drawn to."

According to the Eden Prairie Police Department, police responded to a 911 call about street racing at 1:41 a.m. near Flying Cloud Drive and Crosstown Circle. Authorities say they found vehicles racing. All but one of the cars fled, with policing pursuing the car driven by Voss from Eden Prairie to Minnetonka.

Police say officers lost sight of the vehicle until they found it crashed in a yard on the 5300 block of Baker Road. The driver was found dead.

Eden Prairie Police and the Minnesota State Patrol are investigating.

Voss’ family issued the following statement Monday:

"At this time we just want to show our appreciation of all of the love and support of Devlyn and Marina and our families. This is a tragic situation that resulted in the death of two young beautiful souls. That is what we are focusing on. Our hearts goes out to Marina and her family and we all are just taking our time to grieve and process the difficult emotions."

On the phone, Marina Emms’ mother, Laura, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS her daughter was an innocent passenger in the car.

"What I’m hoping and praying is that these kids, a lot of them are street racers and like cars — I hope a lot of them realize what happened and just stop," Laura Emms said. "We hope that people don’t forget my girl and they just stop."

Friends of Voss and Emms who first gathered in Woodbury on Monday called them both "gentle souls."

"We all were just shocked. We didn’t know what to say, we didn’t know what to do," said Cade Iverson. "They were getting to do a race and cops showed up and (Voss) was just was gone — just a split-second decision, wrong decision at the time, and it just sucks to happen the way it did."

Others also came to Voss’s defense.

"For the people who are saying he deserved it and that was karma for him, you didn’t know Devlyn as a person. Devlyn did not have a bad bone in his body," Kendal Pooler said. "He was always there for everybody else."

As for the pleas from Emms’ mother for street racing to stop, some friends of the victims said they were unsure what might change after the tragedy.

"We all go to the street races. That’s just a thing that we do," Pooler said. "I’ve been worrying about just being safe and high speeds and everything, but I honestly never thought it would be Devlyn."