GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) - A hit-and-run crash has claimed the life of an Oklahoma State University sophomore visiting Alabama’s Gulf Coast on a spring break trip, police said.
Kasey Waychoff, 19, died early Friday morning after being struck by a vehicle while walking in a bicycle lane, Gulf Shores police said. They said the crash happened around 1:45 a.m. Friday, as Waychoff walked with some of her sorority sisters along West Beach Boulevard in the community about 45 miles southeast of Mobile, Ala.
A Baldwin County sheriff’s deputy later stopped a motorist based on a description of the vehicle involved in the hit and run, Al.com reported.
Gulf Shores police said no charges were immediately filed in connection with Waychoff’s death, and they were continuing to investigate the crash.
Waychoff was from Flower Mound, Texas, Oklahoma State University said in a statement.
“Oklahoma State University is saddened by the tragic death of one of our students,” the school said, adding that “thoughts of the entire OSU community go out to her family and friends.”
Waychoff, a native of Edmond, Okla., was studying international finance at OSU, and planned to study abroad in China next year, said her grandfather, Handy Waychoff of Tulsa.
As she was entering high school, the family had moved to Singapore for a few years where her father worked. Later they returned to Flower Mound, where Kasey graduated from Flower Mound High School, Handy Waychoff told The Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, Texas.
“It’s a wonderful family, a good Christian family,” he said. “And she just had such a big heart, and she loved all of them. We have six grandchildren and the first five were grandsons. . I used to like to say my grandsons gave me a basketball team and she was my cheerleader.”
Waychoff and her sorority sisters had decided to visit Gulf Shores because they thought it wouldn’t be as crowded as other spring break destinations, her grandfather told Al.com. He said the family was struggling to understand why she was in the path of the vehicle.
“We don’t understand why it couldn’t have hit a lamp post or something like that,” he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.