In Wellston, the silence after sirens has been replaced by a different kind of noise: the echo of stories about who Matthew Juniper was before that 2 a.m. crash. Friends talk about his laughter on long shifts, his calm voice at chaotic scenes, and the way he treated strangers like neighbors. For a department his size, losing him is not just losing an officer; it is losing a piece of its identity.
As investigators map skid marks and measure distances on South Pennsylvania Avenue, the people who loved him are measuring time in before and after. Before, when a 25-year-old with a badge and a future drove those same streets in uniform. After, when a memorial grows outside the station doors. The answers about what happened may eventually come. The absence he leaves behind already has.
