A New Jersey woman was remembered at funeral services Sunday afternoon, a day after her car was found in the Passaic River in Wallington.
Devorah Stubin, 22, of Passaic, was discovered in her submerged car Saturday afternoon after hundreds of volunteers and police searched for her.
“I don’t even have words, it’s so tragic. I don’t know what to say. It’s really hurtful. We don’t understand," Stubin's friend Channa Gorelik said.
Friends and family fought back tears as they said goodbye to Stubin at a Clifton memorial home on Sunday. The young woman was buried Sunday to keep in accordance with Orthodox Jewish beliefs.
“I just knew her as this incredible girl. She pushed past everything, and she was just amazing. She didn’t let anything define her, and she was really such an example.” Stubin's friend Penina Nussbaum said.
Stubin was last seen Thursday night in Maywood Township driving a gray Mitsubishi Galant, according to New Jersey State Police. Police stopped her in Maywood after she became lost in the town.
Stubin was supposed to be picking up her brother somewhere along the Garden State Parkway but never returned.
She suffered from complex partial seizures, and it's believed that a seizure may have led to her crashing her vehicle. The seizures can last for a few minutes and at times can cause people to wander, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.
Stubin's car was found overturned late Saturday afternoon in the Passaic River; it had apparently crashed through a fence behind a funeral home and plunged into the water. Scuba divers were dispatched to the scene and identified the vehicle and Stubin's body.
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More than 100 people, a lot of them members of the Orthodox Jewish community, had gathered early Saturday to search for her. Many broke the Sabbath to conduct the search because a life was at stake, they said.
Investigators are still trying to figure out if Stubin's seizure disorder played a role in her disappearance, but on Sunday mourners focused on remembering a young soul lost too soon.
“It’s not supposed to be that a parent buries a child. It’s supposed to be the other way around. And for a young girl, a 22-year-old girl who has her life ahead of her. For this to happen to any family, it’s too hard to imagine.” family friend Jonathan Gold said.
