Times Staff Report

Two teens whose bodies were discovered hours after a Saturday car wreck in Gary died instantly in the crash, the Lake County coroner concluded Monday.

Brandon J. Smith and Dominique Green, both 18 and from Gary, suffered massive skull fractures and internal blunt force injuries in the accident that ejected them from their vehicle in the 2700 block of Chase Street.

Smith's father, Arthur Smith, and others are furious Gary police failed to find the two teens, they said. Arthur Smith and another man found Brandon Smith and Green dead in the brush near the scene, Arthur Smith said.

Two other men survived the crash with injuries. The mother of a surviving crash victim said her son struggled to no avail to persuade police to find his injured friends after the wreck.

Smith and Green, both West Side High School students, were pronounced dead at the scene at 9:30 a.m., according to the Lake County coroner's office. The car's other occupants, Darius Moore and DeAndre Anderson, were taken to the Methodist Hospitals Northlake and Southlake campuses. Moore was slated to come home Sunday night, said his mother, Carmelita Evans. Anderson's condition was improving Sunday at Methodist Southlake in Merrillville, Smith said.

Early Saturday, the teens were returning home from a Friday night hip-hop show, relatives said. Moore's older brother had performed as a rapper, Evans said. Moore drove his white Chevrolet Caprice, she said.

Evans' son told her a tire blew out over a bumpy section of Chase Street. He lost control of the car, which flipped repeatedly, smashed through the guard rail and settled in the ditch.

All four occupants were thrown from the car, Evans said.