I'm going to put any info about this horrible incident that I can find on this page, and give credit where it's due. So if you visit often you should know what I do.
 
 


Aug 3, 1999 - This morning Lois Golden (Jeff's Fiancée) died at the Hospital she was taken to after the accident.  My heart goes out to her family!  :-(

Date:    Tue, 03 Aug 1999 00:31:14 -0400
From:    Randall Gelman
Subject: Jeff Carpenter
Message-ID: <#11>

On behalf of, and requested by, the parents, and family of Jeff Carpenter, I would like to give thanks to the many people and regional clubs that sent flowers and cards to them. It was truly a sight to behold, one that brought both Bill Lawrence, and myself to tears. We saw arrangements from all over the US and Canada. Clubs, Shops, individuals.

Bill and I sat down with his parents to explain to them, how Jeff could have been so widely known. They did not understand where everything came from. For them to realize just how much Jeff meant to so many people, made them feel proud.

Just a repeat note, Anyone who has current business with Forced Performance, you can contact Bill Lawrence. He will be trying to settle the business affairs over the next few weeks.

Randy Gelman


posted 8/2/99
Group,
John briefly touched on it, but Jeff Carpenter at Forced Performance was killed at 1:00 AM Thursday morning.  I know you guys know this, but the ironic part to all this is, my dad and I had been at Jeff's all
that week to get my car as most of you know.  We had been over there every day, and Wednesday is when he finally got done with all the finishing touches.  My dad and I took it out for a ride, then we came back and bull $h!tted with Jeff for about 4 hours.  Then we took he and his fiancé out to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.  Well we got there at around 7:30, and Jeff and Cheree (spelling, but it's his fiancé) had A LOT to drink, but we were all having fun.  We got to know each other, and made plans for both of them to come out here and stay with us, and we just got to know Jeff, as a person, not as a vendor from Forced Performance.  I knew him before from when we brought my car down, and we talked on the phone or online daily.  So to me, Jeff wasn't
just "Jeff from Forced Performance"  Jeff, was my friend.  Anyway, after we ate, we went to the bar, and they drank some more.  Anyway, Jeff and Cheree were VERY drunk.  My dad and I were driving all four of us, so that was a relief.  So we left The Outback at around 11:00 PM I'd say.  We got back to their house, and everyone (including me) had another beer.  Well  this whole time Cheree was really itching to go for a drive in Jeff's Talon, which was running, EXTREMELY well.  Well we all sat around, had a great time, we were
all laughing and talking, and just chatting, as friends.  Well my dad and I left at 12:35AM (yes I remember the exact time), well the whole way home, my dad and I were saying that I hope they didn't go for a ride.  Well
the next day Jeff and I were to work on my CV boot, so I went over there at about 9:45 AM, and Cheree's car was still there, and they were no where to be found.  So I went to the door.  The note read "DO NOT LEAVE DELIVERIES FAMILY EMERGENCY" so I figured someone in his family had a health problem, so my dad
and I didn't really worry too much about it all.  So throughout running our errands we kept stopping by his house to see if he was home yet.  Well, as you all know, he never did come home.  Finally, around 4:00 PM we drove by one more time, and there were some of his friends coming up to the house. So I pulled up and said "Have you guys heard from Jeff?"  The two girls looked horrible, and the guy (ended up being Jeff's best friend) told me in these exact words "Jeff, was killed last night in a car accident.  He and Cheree went for a
drive, and I guess he lost control and flipped the car, he was ejected and died."  So after that, all of Thursday I was a mess.  I cried at the house, the whole 30 minute drive back to the hotel, then at the hotel. It just didn't seem right, we were out having a good time with him, and we wake up the next morning and he's dead.  Anyway, the ironic part of all this is that I have the last car that Jeff Carpenter ever built, he put on one
of his Upper IC pipes which he redesigned and while doing it said this: "You're getting the first one of my new designs", so I have the first UIC pipe from him.  Then he gave me his COMPLETELY cut air can, which he said "You're lucky, I'm giving you the air can that I ran that 12.20 in on the stock turbo."  What's even worse is that my dad and I were the last ones to be with him, and see him before he did.  I feel lucky as anything to have all the stuff he gave me, and to have the last car that Jeff ever built. Jeff wasn't just a DSM guy, he was a DSM genius, he was BRILLIANT, he developed new things (one of which he implemented on my car).  The DSM club has lost probably one of the best tuners, vendors, and friends it has ever had, and will have.  This is a loss to me too. I knew Jeff as a friend, a person, not just Jeff on the phone from Forced Performance, but Jeff as my friend.  This hurts like no other.  I've never had a friend die.  And while only knowing Jeff for a very short time, I feel like we had a special relationship that went past the car.  Like I said, we talked daily, and it was almost never all about my car, it was about his life, and my life, and we screwed with each other, and he gave me SUCH good prices, that he said he did just for me.  I guess it would be corny, but there was a bond between us.  I'm going to miss him, and I know most of you will too.

Alex Massa
 
 


This is news I got from the digest today: 8/2/99
Sgt. Wayne Allen said Jeffrey Carpenter, 26, was driving a black Eagle Talon about 1 a.m. in the 3600 block of South 145th East Avenue. "What happened then was that the vehicle left the roadway at a very high rate of speed, hit some trees on the side of the road, flipping end over end three times and finally coming to rest on its top," Allen said. Preliminary reports indicate that neither person was wearing a seat belt. Carpenter's fiancée, Lois Golden, 24, the passenger, was transported by paramedics to Hillcrest Medical Center in critical condition.

This is from KVOO News: Oklahoma News


1:50 p.m. July 29, 1999 (Tulsa) -- A man and a woman were both ejected after their car ramped up a short, steep hill on 145th East Avenue in Tulsa and went airborne, crashing through some trees on the side of the road. The 27-year-old driver was dead at the scene. The woman was flown to a Tulsa hospital in extremely critical condition. Police say the car had to be traveling well over 100 miles per hour.