A Gordon College freshman died in a car crash Saturday in the southeastern Massachusetts town of Lakeville.
Officials pronounced Monica DeMello, 18, of Middleborough, dead at the scene after being involved in a two-vehicle accident on Route 44, according to a statement from the Lakeville Police Department.
The other driver, Kathleen Allen, 23, of Middleborough, is scheduled to be arraigned in Wareham District Court on a number of charges, including drunken driving negligence, motor vehicle homicide, drunken driving with serious injury and negligence, driving to endanger, and a marked lanes violation. Emergency responders transported her unidentified passenger by medical helicopter to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay wrote on the school’s Facebook page, “This is a tragedy and a shock to all of us, especially on the eve of Easter.” Lindsay said university officials will be talking with students to determine the best way for faculty, staff, and students to “celebrate Monica’s life and to grieve her loss as a community.” “May the blessed assurance of Monica’s place with our risen Savior be a comfort in these coming days,” Lindsay wrote.
A Facebook page created in DeMello’s honor now has over 900 members. The introduction page read, “We were blessed by such a beautiful person and the world is a better place by having her. You’ve earned your Angel wings Monica, now fly over us all and protect us.” Family, friends, classmates, former classmates, and well-wishers have all posted comments expressing their grief and shock at her death.
DeMello graduated from Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical High School, and formerly lived in Taunton, MA. Her mother and sister live in Middleborough, and her father resides in Florida.
Rick Sweeney, the college’s vice president for marketing and communications, said the school is planning “some opportunity for the entire campus to come together.” He described DeMello’s passing as a tragedy for her family and friends, as well as the other driver involved. The community will “remember her as a wonderful girl full of life,” he said.
Notifying the Gordon College community was challenging, Sweeney said, because students were off for Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. Students will be back on campus, where about 1,530 undergraduates live, this week.
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Source: Gordon Freshman Killed in Accident, Salem News, April 1, 2013