Holiday crash kills UF student
Two other Lake teens were hurt when their SUV flipped, police say.
By Jim Buynak | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted November 26, 2004
EUSTIS -- "And so my dear friends, this poem must now end
What a remarkable journey it's been
We've come to a crossroads, where we've not been before . . ."
The words spoken in May by teenager Abby Rose Lee when she delivered the salutatorian address to fellow graduates of Mount Dora Christian Home & Bible School moved her audience to tears.
And the words echoed through the minds of family and friends Thursday after they learned that the University of Florida freshman, whose future seemed so full of promise that spring day, had been killed in a single-vehicle accident early Thanksgiving morning.
"The speech was amazing," Joe Roberts, the school's vice president of administration, said. "I was the keynote speaker, and I had to follow Abby. I remember asking, " 'How am I going to follow that? ' "
Lee, 19, was sleeping in the back seat of a 2001 Toyota 4Runner when the sport utility vehicle, driven by her high-school friend and UF classmate Phoebe Thormond Mello, hit a puddle during a storm, hydroplaned and rolled over 11/2 times on U.S. Highway 441 in Orange County, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Mello, 18, and front-seat passenger Rachel Nichole Arnett, 18, both of Mount Dora, were wearing seat belts and escaped with minor injuries, the FHP said. The three, friends from Christian Home & Bible, were returning home after spending Wednesday evening in the Church Street area of Orlando.
FHP Sgt. Jorge Delahoz said Lee, who had unhooked her seat belt so she could lie down on the back seat, was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where she died.
He said riding in the back seat without a seat belt is not illegal for anyone older than 16, but "it's not recommended."
Delahoz said there was no indication the driver was speeding.
"It was raining pretty hard, and she may have hit a puddle and lost control," he said, adding that the SUV had spun 180 degrees then rolled over, coming to rest on its roof.
The crash happened at 3 a.m., just five miles from the Lees' Eustis home, where her family had gathered for the holiday.
"The girls just went out for a night in Orlando," Lee's mother, Melinda Lee, said. "I just talked to the driver who said Abby was sleeping in the back when it happened."
The Lees had planned a traditional Thanksgiving. Along with Abby Rose there was to be son Ben, a UF graduate student; oldest daughter, Ellie, a student at Florida State University; and Anna, a sophomore at Christian Home & Bible.
Hours after the crash, Dr. Jeffrey Lee, a physician at Florida Hospital who lives in Orlando, sat on the stairs of the Lake County house staring at the walls, too distraught to speak about his daughter's death.
Anna Lee curled up on a couch, her eyes red from crying, and recalled how her big sister "always made sad times funny. She always made me laugh."
Abby Lee was born in Milwaukee in 1985 when her father was attending medical school while in the Navy.
The family lived in Virginia before moving to Central Florida in 1995.
Melinda Lee said her daughter was home-schooled until seventh grade, then went to Christian Home & Bible .
The gregarious teenager ran cross country and track, carried a 4.2-plus grade point average, was a member of two honor societies and the Best Buddies club, an organization that mentors children with physical and learning disabilities.
Melinda Lee said her daughter also went on church missions to the Dominican Republic.
Voted by high-school classmates as most likely to succeed, Abby Lee was doing a double major -- English and sociology -- at UF and was interested in going to law school, her mother said.
Services for her daughter will be held at Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Eustis, but a date has not yet been set, Melinda Lee said.
"When I got the call this morning I couldn't help but cry," Roberts of Christian Home & Bible said. "She was such a kind, beautiful, gracious, kindhearted girl."
Roberts said he kept a copy of Abby Lee's graduation speech -- the final words of which on Thursday seemed hauntingly prophetic.
"Jesus goes with us when He lives in our heart
Watching each footstep as we make this new start
So let Him lead you and remember this too
That I'm going to miss you and that I love you."
Jim Buynak can be reached at
[email protected] or 352-742-5917.
