HAMILTON – A permanent memorial to four students killed in a drunk driving accident on the Colgate University campus in 2000 was unveiled earlier this week during an emotional ceremony at the site of the crash.

Rachel Nargiso, Emily Collins, Katie Almeter and Kevin King were killed on Colgate’s Oak Drive when the Jeep they were riding in, operated by university student Robert Koester, went off the road and struck a large tree.

A crowd of around 50, mostly family and friends of the victims, gathered under that same tree Monday to view the new memorial, placed where the four died in the early hours of Nov. 11, 2000.

Nargiso, Collins and Almeter were Class of 2000 graduates from Norwich High School and nearly life-long best friends.

King grew up in Troy and was best friends with Koester, who was driving after a night of partying.

The memorial was designed by Kathleen Kohl, a junior art student at Colgate, who developed the idea as a project for her sculpture class after taking an interest in the students and their stories her freshman year.