Dozens gather for vigil in honor of girl, 10, fatally struck by car
By Ted Wayman, Danae Bucci, Imani Clement
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WEBSTER, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A vigil was held Monday for a 10-year-old girl who died after she was struck by a vehicle in Webster, Massachusetts.
Marleigh Rose Guevara was Saturday hit while she was playing outside on School Street near her home.
A passerby with their own automatic external defibrillator initiated CPR before first responders arrived and took her to UMass Memorial Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
According to both the Webster and Dudley police departments, the driver in the crash was arrested on April 3 for drug possession and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
The driver was stopped in the middle of Center Road in Dudley just after 9:30 p.m. and appeared to be asleep behind the wheel, police said.
Inside the car, police found a green container containing a substance believed to be crack cocaine and two other baggies believed to be either heroin, fentanyl or crack cocaine. The driver was arrested and released on personal recognizance.
Carmen Borerro said she heard the impact of the School Street crash and stayed with Marleigh until police arrived.
“The person stopped. The person who hit her stopped,” Borerro said in Spanish. “They were talking to her until they eventually let her go.”
In a letter from Webster Public Schools, the superintendent said Marleigh was a fourth grader at Park Avenue Elementary School.
“When a community tragically loses a child, it loses a piece of its soul. Our hearts go out to Marleigh’s family and friends as they endure this terrible loss,” the police department said in a statement.
Marleigh’s mother wrote on a GoFundMe that she is “shattered in a way I didn’t know possible.”
“Marleigh was everything. She had the kind of light that you don’t come across often, the kind that made people feel safe, happy, and loved just by being near her,” her mother wrote. “Her laugh was contagious, her heart was pure, and her presence made this world a better place. To know her was to truly love her.”
Neighbors said drivers frequently speed down School Street.
“Notorious. They need to sit on this road and catch people. I don’t know, put speed bumps on the road,” neighbor Jason D’Andrea said.
The driver has not been charged in Marleigh’s death.
The crash is being investigated by the Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council Accident Reconstruction Unit, along with the Webster Police Department and the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office.
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