On the narrow shoulder of County Route 551, a two-lane road in the heart of rural Salem County, N.J., a memorial appears suddenly among the fields of corn and soybeans. Bunched together are bouquets of flowers, miniature flags and dozens of hockey sticks: an incongruous signpost to a tragic accident that shattered two extended families and left a community bereft.

“It just couldn’t be any worse,” said Lee Ware, a local farmer who was once commissioner for Salem County and a local high school baseball coach of 46 years. He knows both families. “I’ve lived here my whole life, and I know everyone in the county feels the same way. This is a rough one.”

On Aug. 29, about an hour after the sun had set, John Gaudreau, an All-Star forward in the National Hockey League, and his younger brother, Matthew Gaudreau, a former professional hockey player and coach at nearby Gloucester Catholic High School, were struck and killed by a driver as they went for a bike ride near their parents’ home. They were preparing for their sister’s wedding in Philadelphia the next day.

John was 31, married with two children, one born in 2022 and another in February. Matthew was 29. His wife is expecting their first child in December.

New Jersey State Police arrested and charged Sean M. Higgins, 43, of Woodstown, N.J., a small village about 10 miles from the site of the accident where the memorial now sits. Similar memorials have popped up wherever John or Matthew Gaudreau (goo-DROH) played hockey: in Calgary, in Canada; in Columbus, Ohio; in Boston; and at the Hollydell Ice Arena in Sewell, N.J., where the brothers skated as boys.