His mother opened up about the devastating loss and the moments leading up to it.

John DeReggi was smiling and posing for a series of photos with his girlfriend and her twin sister when everything changed in an instant. What started as a fun afternoon ended in tragedy. 

The three 16-year-olds were working on a school photography class project in September 2015, heading out to the quiet railroad tracks in rural Maryland to capture their shots.While there, John was playfully balancing and dancing along the steel rails, sharing laughs with his girlfriend, as her twin sister snapped pictures. None of them could have imagined what was about to happen next.