High-school sweethearts act out American tragedy

Who knew how fiercely teenagers Michaela Wegner and Harold Holt burned for each other? Who could have known their forbidden love would take them to their graves? This week, it did just that. Having been warned by her parents to stop seeing Harold, Michaela and her boyfriend decided to end their lives.

On Monday afternoon, Michaela's parents returned to their house in the Washington suburbs and discovered the bodies of the two teenagers. At the scene was a handgun, along with two notes that made clear the teenagers had chosen to die together.

"We believe [their deaths were] related to their relationship," said a sheriff's department spokesman. "The information suggests their parents did not approve."

Michaela's mother, Lorijane Graham, who is divorced from the teenager's father, admitted as much when she explained that while she liked Harold, 19, she believed he was too old for her daughter, 15, an A-grade student.

"I objected, yes, to the age," Mrs Graham told The Washington Post. "But I also knew he ran with a rough crowd." Mrs Graham learnt of the relationship last March when another parent informed her. She then refused her daughter permission to accompany Harold to the school prom.

But the romance continued and by Christmas Mrs Graham had decided to speak to her daughter when she returned from a visit to her father. She returned last Sunday and the Grahams were to talk to her the next evening. They never got the chance.

At Michaela's funeral on Friday, the Rev Dan Horner pleaded with anyone in a similar situation "to never give up". Harold was buried at the same cemetery yesterday.