OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) - Loved ones are grieving the loss of four Camp Pendleton Marines, killed in a fiery crash in Los Angeles over the weekend.
“I don't think there are words to describe that pain,” said Jacinda Stage.
The pain began with a fun night in Los Angeles. Joshua Moore, 27, best friend Daniel Nichols, 26, and two other friends, all Camp Pendleton Marines, attended a concert Friday night.
As they were leaving to head back, Moore sent his girlfriend, Jacinda Stage, a message through Snapchat.
“He promised that they would be safe and that he loved me, and he called me his sweetheart,” said a tearful Stage.
Soon after, tragedy unfolded on southbound Interstate 5 in Downey.
The California Highway Patrol says around 2:30 a.m., a Dodge Charger lost control, hit a guardrail and pillar, and split in half.
All four died at the scene.
RELATED: UPDATE: All 4 people killed in LA-area I-5 crash were Camp Pendleton Marines
“My whole world exploded, as I lost my other half and 3 friends,” said Stage.
Stage calls Moore, her boyfriend of nearly a year and a passenger in the car, her soulmate.
“He was compassionate, kind, intelligent and loved to cook,” said Stage.
Stage showed us a photo from December when Moore was being promoted to staff sergeant. Hours later, he shared his feelings at home.
“He just held me and cried, and so grateful and honored,” said Stage.
Moore enlisted in the Marines in 2014.
“He loved serving country, providing safety to the community, and the community it brought him, the brotherhood,” said Stage.
It was a similar sense of duty for Moore's best friend, Daniel Nichols.
His mother calls Nichols, a passenger in the car, a funny, honest man, so proud to be a Marine and proud of being a new father to a one-year-old girl.
“He was a wonderful dad, always there for the baby, and he always wanted to see her,” said Julia Nichols.
In a similar vein, stage says Moore was always there for her 5-year-old son.
“They were inseparable, those two,” said Stage. “The world has lost a glimmer of sunlight.”
The CHP has released few details about the cause of the crash, only that the investigation is ongoing.
GoFundMe campaigns have been started for both the Mooreand Nichols families to help with expenses.
