A celebration turned to tragedy in New Jersey, as a teen girl was killed in a car crash just weeks before she was set to graduate from high school.
Lauren Hewski was supposed to be at her senior prom Friday night, along with her classmates at St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel. But she never made it. The 18-year old was killed in a car crash Thursday afternoon on her way to meet her parents for a graduation celebration.
"She had such a bright future ahead of her, to see this light just taken away from all of us all at once," said family friend Chris Locicero.
Hewski was getting ready to start her new chapter in life: she planned to attend Syracuse University in the fall. That all that ended on Laird Road in Colts Neck.
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The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office said a Jeep Cherokee driven by a 17-year-old — identified as Lauren's boyfriend — crashed into a utility pole and flipped over just after 12 p.m. Hewski, in the passenger seat, was killed and her boyfriend was left injured.
It should have been a celebratory day for Hewski and her family. She had earned an associate's degree from Brookdale Community College while still in high school and had attended a morning commencement ceremony with her parents cheering her on.
Friends said Hewski went in her boyfriend's car to a graduation lunch with her parents. When the teens never arrived at the restaurant, her parents checked their daughter's location and drove to the spot on Laird Road that the police had already closed off with caution tape.
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"A beautiful person, very caring young lady, intelligent. If you knew Lauren, you knew what type of person she was," Locicero said. "Her parents — unbelievable people, they didn't deserve this. No parent deserves this. As you can imagine we are all heartbroken."
The president of Brookdale Community College sent out a statement that read, "Lauren was an incredibly intelligent and talented young woman who left an indelibly positive impression on all of her faculty and classmates. Our hearts are broken at the loss of this precious young life-- a life filled with promised and possibilities."
The county prosecutor's office said the cause of the crash is still under investigation. St. John Vianney High School elected to postpone their prom, but held a mass for students Friday morning along with a moment of silence.
