By Paul Bass, Thomas Breen and Dereen Shirnekhi, New Haven Independent
NEW HAVEN, CT — Marshall Curry was a 13-year-old struggling his way through different schools while getting bullied. Destiny Ellis was a 16-year-old living in a Ledyard group home for girls in state foster care.
Marshall was behind the wheel of a Hyundai Elantra and fleeing from police and Destiny was in the passenger seat early Sunday when the car crashed into a tree and both died.
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Police were able Sunday to promptly identify Marshall, one of the initial 14 students in the new pilot Wexler-Grant Academy of Exploration and Innovation middle school for non-traditional, skill-based learning. Authorities publicly identified him on Thursday. It took four days for even the police to learn Destiny’s identity.
Marshall was driving the stolen 2019 Hyundai early Sunday when police officers tried to stop him. His car nearly collided with a New Haven patrol cruiser, according to New Haven police. Then he sped away down Whalley Avenue at high speed, with the cops chasing behind. Marshall lost control of the car and crashed it into a tree on the Whalley property of Congregation Beth El Keser Israel at around 4:52 a.m. The crash killed both Marshall and Destiny.
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The pilot middle school Marshall attended in the Dixwell neighborhood occupies what used to be the Wexler-Grant K-6 school building. New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) opened this new middle school after merging the former K-6 Wexler-Grant school community with the Lincoln-Bassett School community, creating a single new K-8 school based out of Bassett’s Newhallville campus.
“Marshall was loved by the school community,” Wexler-Grant Principal David Diah told the Independent on Thursday. “He was friendly with his fellow students and respectful toward his teachers. He came from a caring home. He loved Wexler Grant School and was particularly fond of woodworking and music production. He will be sorely missed.”
Back in September 2025, the Independent interviewed Marshall as his grandmother picked him up from school.
Marshall’s grandmother told the Independent last September that, one week in, the new Wexler-Grant was a perfect fit for her grandson.
She said that Marshall had attended three different schools in recent years, and that his mom had taken him out of each due to persistent problems with bullying.
At the new Wexler-Grant, Marshall’s grandmother said, Marshall reportedly told his grandmother and mom, “I got friends here.”
NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent that, in the wake of a tragedy like Marshall’s death, “the school informs families that there has been a student death and sends a letter with suggestions about ways to help their children process the loss. The district provides counseling support for students and staff in the affected school.”
On Wednesday police were still appealing to the public for information to help them identify the female passenger who turned out to be Destiny Ellis.
Once she was identified on Thursday, her birth mother, Ashonte Ellis, was crushed.
“She was a good kid. She was a real sweetheart,” Ellis, who lives in Waterbury, said of her daughter.
She said Destiny has lived in state Department of Children and Families (DCF) foster care since she was 9. Most recently Destiny had been living at the Ledyard-based Gray Farm House, a group home for girls under DCF supervision.
Ashonte Ellis said she was in touch with her daughter. She said her daughter had “gone AWOL” at least three times before this incident.
“I wouldn’t have known about my daughter’s death if my friend hadn’t told me” after information surfaced on Facebook. She said DCF had instead contacted “the old foster mom that my daughter wasn’t living at anymore.”
Ellis said her daughter told DCF “she wanted to kill herself. They failed my daughter. When she used to live in Waterbury, she use to run away. I would leave my house late at night to go look for my daughter.”
Gray Farm House’s director referred questions to Noank Community Support Services, a nonprofit that oversees the group home.
“Our clients are under DCF guardianship. Nothing was done wrong with the facility. But you’d have to speak with DCF,” Noank Executive Director Regina Moller told the Independent.
Authorities finally learned of Destiny’s identity within the past 24 hours.
“DCF was the assist” in identifying Destiny, said one law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. DCF matched her photo with one in a log of children who had been reported missing.
Interim DCF Commissioner Susan I. Hamilton emailed a statement to the Independent Thursday about Destiny’s death: “We are just learning of the tragic death of a youth in our care who suffered fatal injuries as a result of a motor vehicle accident. Our hearts are extended to the family, friends, Attorney, community partners, and the DCF staff who worked so closely with her for the traumatic loss they are now experiencing. During this extremely difficult time, our Agency will be arranging support for those who knew her.”
State police are conducting an investigation into the crash. Reached for comment, a state police spokesperson said that the case remains under investigation and that there is no further information available for release.
Maya McFadden contributed to this report.
The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.
