–By Joshua Resnek

Preparations were made for the burial of two 16-year-old Everett High School sophomores who died in a car crash on the McGrath Highway in Somerville on Friday morning.

Mayara Alves was waked from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Assembly of God Church on Norwood Street Monday evening. Her burial took place Tuesday morning, 10:00 a.m.  at the church.

Isabella DaSilva will be waked from the Cafasso and Sons Funeral Home on Clark Street but the date and time of the wake and the funeral to follow have yet to be scheduled or announced.

The 21- year- old driver of the automobile the girls were riding in, Kenneth Belew of Somerville, was arraigned in Somerville District Court Monday morning and charged with two counts of motor vehicle homicide and drunken driving.

He was released on $5,000 bail.

Alves died at the scene of the crash. DaSilva died at the Massachusetts General Hospital over the weekend.

The predawn crash has caused an outpouring of grief at Everett High School where both girls were popular students, well known to the student body, and well liked.

“These were good kids, never in trouble, one of them with great grades, the other struggling just a bit,” said Superintendent of Schools Fred Foresteire.

“Everybody liked them. We all feel terrible about this. We all feel for their families and friends,” he added.

Grief counselors have been meeting with students at the high school since Saturday and were still meeting with students Monday. The Everett Public Schools has a specially trained grief counseling staff and crisis team made up of social workers and psychologists who were called into action.

“This was a terrible spring vacation tragedy,” Foresteire said.

And he is right.

The driver of the car was screaming and pulling his hair when found by police after the crash according to Somerville police officers at the scene of the accident.

Belew had a checkered driving record and a few court appearances on a variety of lesser criminal charges.

The dead girls were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash. Three male passengers in the automobile wearing their seat belts suffered minor injuries, according to the police.

According to police reports, Belew was driving, that he had sped up and suddenly, for no apparent reason, hit the brake causing the car to slide sideways before smashing into a barrier on the McGrath Highway.

He was driving a 2001 Chevrolet Malibu.

Survivors of the crash told police they had left a party and the six of them got into the automobile.

Monday, the Somerville Court was packed with family members supportive of Belew as well as family members grieving over the loss of their daughters.