Rodney Torain's grandparents typically gave him $200 for Christmas. Last year, he spent most of it on diamond jewelry for his girlfriend.

Atlas Fraley helped his father assemble the artificial Christmas tree, just as he had every year since he was 7 years old.

This year, the families had to face Christmas without their sons, and they still don't fully understand the circumstances that took their lives.

"It's hard for us to begin to move on when you have so many questions still unanswered," said Fraley's father, David.

Fraley died Aug. 12 within hours of calling 911 and being seen by a paramedic following a Chapel Hill High School football scrimmage that left him cramping and complaining of dehydration. State EMS officials and the school system are investigating his death. A medical examiner's report explaining what caused Fraley's death has not been released in nearly five months since his death.

The Fraleys believe their son was dehydrated, as he had told a 911 operator, and that the paramedic should have given him an IV like he had requested. Atlas had collapsed from dehydration a year earlier.

"We have our own personal opinion, but I can't say we have any facts to back anything up," said David Fraley.

Torain died Nov. 16 in a car wreck on Neville Road west of Carrboro. The girls with him said a group of men in a gold or silver sedan had run them off the road.

"Any way you look at it, it still was murder, whether it was a car crash or not," said Torain's mother. Deanne Jackson. "I just don't know how the system is working right now."

The state Highway Patrol has been investigating leads but has no suspect. The local Crime Stoppers have offered a $300 reward for information leading to an arrest.

"We haven't had that right piece of evidence or the witness who may have seen something," said Capt. Everett Clendenin. "We haven't had the call yet."

Jackson said she is angry the hit-and-run driver hasn't been caught.

"Someone has taken someone else's life. It could as well have been somebody else's child," she said. "As a community we need to look out if we hear anything, even if you think it's not important or sounds crazy, just call Crime Stoppers or the state trooper."

Torain had been on a cell phone call with his mother just before the crash. He told her they were being followed and were heading back into Carrboro. She figured he'd go back to his friend Antonio Rone's house, where he usually stayed on the weekends. She didn't find out he was dead until four hours later when Trooper T.S. Wright came knocking on her door.

"Like a ton of bricks," she said. "It just hit me."

David Fraley said he and his wife had to leave Chapel Hill for Christmas. They visited his family in Georgia.

"We didn't even think we could take being in the house this time of year," he said.