Top Ten #5: Three teens
die in tragic accidents
12-30-2020
Three Sanpete teenagers were killed in tragic accidents in 2020. All three of the teens were well-known students at local high schools; all deaths were the result of sudden trauma caused by unforeseen crashes.
Jabin Taylor, 17, from Manti High School, was killed in a motorcycle accident on Easter holiday in Wayne County. He was considered a skilled rider and he was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident; he was thrown from his bike after hitting a rock and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Sharleen Sorensen, a 15-year-old cheerleader at North Sanpete High School, was killed in a tragic car accident on July 18 on U.S. 89 just south of Mt. Pleasant. She was a passenger in a car that was allegedly racing another vehicle. During the accident, the car she was riding in went airborne, jumped a ditch and rolled. She was flown by helicopter to Primary Children’s Hospital, where she died from her injuries.
Trace Boylan, a 17-year-old senior at Manti High School, was killed in a freak woodcutting accident in Ephraim Canyon on Nov. 5. The young man was cutting wood with a friend and his friend’s father near Willow Creek Road when a felled tree was knocked off course and crashed into him. CPR revived his heart and breathing. He was taken by air ambulance to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, where he eventually passed away.
Jabin Taylor
After Jabin’s death, people across Sanpete tied red ribbons on their property and erected signs saying #liveforjabin. Hundreds of his friends took to the streets on motorcycles, dirt bikes and ATVs to form a motorcade on Main Street in Ephraim. Many of the riders then attended Taylor’s graveside services at the Ephraim Cemetery.
Jabin is the son of son of Matthew Huntsman and Ralaina May Roberts Taylor. He was a straight-A student and a state qualifier in wrestling.
He was an active member of the LDS Church. Jabin loved everything outdoors. Some of the things he enjoyed doing with his family included horseback riding and packing, riding dirt bikes, camping and hunting with his cousins and friends, swimming and yard work. He loved fixing his truck and dirt bike. He had a passion for doing back flips from rope swings from the highest trees, on to the ground and into the water. He loved rock and roll, and old time country music, and he had a special talent for rapping.
Sharlee Sorensen
Before she passed away, Sharlee had just completed her freshman year at North Sanpete High School, where she was a varsity cheerleader. She excelled in everything she did, from her schoolwork to her many extracurricular activities, hobbies and passions. She loved life, and was a ray of light and positive force that the world needed.
Sharlee often talked about all the things she had planned for her future. She was always thinking 10 steps ahead and putting others needs before her own.
Her favorite things included cheerleading, horses, fashion and makeup, and she was a pro at all of them. She always had the best hair, and loved being with her friends and family,
She was the daughter of Robert and Jeannie Sorensen of Mt. Pleasant.
Trace Boylan
According to friends and family, Trace was a “fun-loving, happy-go-lucky, charming, charismatic young man with a bright smile.” Matthew Ecklund, Trace’s brother-in-law, said, “A lot of people can attest to him being a very kind young man. He would be one of the very first to stop and help someone out.”
“He could get anyone to smile,” said Sarah Litteral, one of Trace’s good friends. “If I was sad, he would recognize it and he would mess around with me to get me to smile. He was a really bright and fun person.”
For years Trace knew that he wanted to go to a trade school. His latest plans were to go to the automotive program at the Snow College campus in Richfield. “Any time his dad had to do work on vehicles or tune up a lawn mower, that’s the type of stuff he would do,” Ecklund said.
Boylan is the seventh of eight children born to Brent and Teresa Boylan of Manti.
