The four Pepperdine University students struck and killed onthe side of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on Tuesday are being remembered as young women of good character.
Vinita Weir — whose only daughter, Asha Weir, was killed, along with Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart and Deslyn Williams, when, authorities said, a 22-year-old driver lost control of his sedan — said Thursday that Pepperdine should be proud of the young women because they represented the school’s values impeccably.
They were all seniors and members of the Alpha Phi sorority.
Asha Weir, Rolston and Stewart were also roommates, said Vinita Weir, who was traveling Thursday from her home in Skippack, Pennsylvania, to Los Angeles.
Asha Weir was born on May 29, 2002, in Ireland, where her family lived until 2012, when they moved to the United States.
She had two brothers — Michael, 23, and Jamie, who just turned 15. She made a surprise visit home this past weekend to celebrate his birthday.
“I dropped her to Philadelphia airport on Tuesday morning and she told me she didn’t really want to go back this time but was excited to be coming home again at Thanksgiving,” Vinita Weir said. “I miss her and don’t know how to do life without her.”
Asha Weir knew how to live life to the fullest and “was an amazing daughter and sister,” her mom said.
Asha Weir loved Pepperdine and worked hard to get accepted to the private university, her mother said. She majored in English and was looking forward to graduating in the spring. She was considering working in the U.K. afterward.
“She had the biggest heart, a beautiful soul, an empath always caring for others and carrying their burdens,” Vinita Weir said.
The four women were on the side of Pacific Coast Highway around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, of Malibu, lost control of his sedan, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
He struck three vehicles that hit the young women who died at the scene, the sheriff’s department said. He was arrested and accused of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, authorities said.
The Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station did not immediately return a request for comment about the status of the investigation.
Vinita Weir said she last spoke to her daughter Tuesday when Asha Weir texted her mother to let her know that she had landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport.
“I talked to her every day and not getting her call will break my heart daily,” Vinita Weir said.
Jim Gash, the president and CEO of Pepperdine, said the four women had “brought joy and light” to the campus and were taken “suddenly, tragically, and incomprehensibly.”
“Indeed, one of the greatest mysteries of life is when and why our time on this earth is cut short,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Tavleen Tarrant contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
