Paige Garneau was a happy, caring 19-year-old awaiting word from two local hospitals on whether she would have her first big job, after completing her certification for taking blood samples.

She loved her little Chihuahuas. And Garneau thought, her mother said, that she loved a boy from Weare.

She was killed this weekend in a car crash, the passenger in a car driven by that boyfriend, Robert M. Pitts, 18.

Interviews and court records paint a picture of two teenagers so intent on seeing one another that they would take off in their parents' cars without permission.

Little could stop them. Not curfews or court orders. Not parental warnings. Not blue lights and sirens.

Pitts appeared in a Concord District courtroom Tuesday to answer charges from an early Sunday morning crash on Interstate 93 that caused Garneau's death.

Friends and family of the Laconia teen were also in court, mourning her loss.

“She thought she loved him and I don't know why,” her mother, Jenny Garneau, said Tuesday. “He killed my daughter.”

The two only began dating several weeks ago, Mrs.

On Friday night, the night before she died, Garneau took her parents' Dodge Durango to Weare without their permission.

She wanted to visit Pitts, who was under a court-ordered curfew.

Weare Police Sgt. Bob Peterson said police found the two in a church parking lot a short distance from the Pitts home on Center Road. They took the couple to the police station, where David Garneau arrived to pick up his daughter and return her to their downtown Laconia home.

The two would not be parted for long.

The next night, Pitts took his father's 2012 Chevrolet Impala without permission and drove to Laconia, where he picked up Garneau, according to court records.

Jenny Garneau said police contacted her Saturday night and asked about Paige's whereabouts. Mrs. Garneau thought her daughter was spending the night with some friends.

“I knew then she was probably with him and I figured she'd just come home,” she said.

But at 6 a.m. Sunday, the knock on the door came from police notifying the Garneaus that their daughter was dead.

The fatal crash took place at the Exit 17E ramp in Concord. Police in Tilton and Northfield were pursing Pitts before he entered I-93 at Exit 19.

Pitts told a state trooper the two were hoping to reach Boston.

He knew he would be going straight to jail, so he had no intention of stopping. He told the trooper he was trying to get away by taking the exit ramp, but he took it too fast and crashed.

Police said Pitts had no driving experience.

Garneau grew up in a downtown Laconia neighborhood and was known for her sweet smile and her kindness. She loved to volunteer for the March of Dimes and cared for her friends when they were sick.

She had passed her courses at Lakes Region Community College and was awaiting word on whether she could begin working by taking blood samples at either Lakes Region General Hospital or Franklin Regional Hospital.

Pitts was under court orders not to leave his home at night. He was facing charges out of Concord of attempted arson and criminal threatening with a deadly weapon, police said.

And on Aug. 1, he was arrested in Laconia for a theft from a vehicle, Laconia Police Capt. Matt Canfield said.

At the end of the Tuesday hearing, Pitts was ordered held on $200,000 cash bail on charges of negligent homicide, disobeying a police officer and two counts of breach of bail. He is to return to court Sept. 14 for a probable cause hearing.

Sgt. Peterson in Weare called it a tragedy for both families.

“It will be with both their families for the rest of their lives,” he said.

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Pat Grossmith may be reached at pgrossmith@unionleader.com. Paula Tracy may be reached at ptracy@unionleader.com.