844 is coming home: Andrew Dean will be escorted back to Stephenville Thursday.

By SARA VANDEN BERGE

When Andrew Dean makes his final journey back to Stephenville on Thursday, he won’t be making the trip alone.

A team of Erath County firefighters and EMTs will escort the body of the 21-year-old back to Stephenville where he will be laid to rest in the coming days.

Dean died at a Fort Worth hospital Tuesday night from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident on Monday.

He was a beloved EMT and volunteer firefighter with Erath County Volunteer Fire Rescue, and his death is hitting those he worked closely with extremely hard.

“This one is tough,” ECVFR coordinator Chris Brooks told Beneath the Surface News. “A lot of us are having a really tough time with this.”

Thursday won’t be easy either.

A convoy of firetrucks will leave Stephenville Thursday morning to pick up Dean’s body from a funeral home in Benbrook, then escort him back to Stephenville.

Here’s an estimate of the timeline:

The procession will leave Benbrook by 10:15 a.m., traveling on I-20, then take U.S. Hwy. 281 into Stephenville.

It will then head west onto the South Loop and end at Stephenville Funeral Home.

“We encourage the public to come out and line the roads to honor Andrew’s service to our community and show respect to his family,” Brooks said.