Vigil held for BU students killed in crash

BOSTON (WHDH) -- Hundreds of Boston University students have held a candlelight vigil for three classmates killed in a minivan crash in New Zealand, where they were studying.

“We know these students were alive with hopes and dreams and potential and capacity -- all dashed,” BU President Robert Brown said.

Junior Tori Pinheiro says her boyfriend, Austin Brashears, was among those who died in the Saturday morning accident. She cried at the Boston vigil as she recalled how friendly he was and how much she loved him.

She says he recently had left her a voicemail saying he missed her and she has been playing it repeatedly.

“I listened to it four times just to hear your voice. I reread all the messages about your amazing time in New Zealand and I swear you were trying to set a record for the most adventures per week. I was so happy to hear about them,” she said. “You were the love of my life and we made each other so happy.”

New Zealand police say the students who died -- Brashears, Daniela Lekhno and Roch Jauberty -- were traveling with a group of 13 others in two vans near a North Island vacation town when their minivan drifted to the side of the road and then rolled over.

“The driver appears to have corrected or overcorrected and the vehicle had gone into a role and then cart wheeled down the road,” Inspector Kevin Taylor said.

Five others were injured, including a student from Southboro.

Sorority sisters called Lekhno a literature buff.

“She deserved the ending that the beautiful girls always get,” Julie Hirsch said. “She deserved the ending that the kind women get because she was so sweet and so kind.”

Jauberty, friends say, was following his passion.

“Roch was there because Roch lived the way he wanted to live,” one student said.

The vigil ended with students signing notes for the parents of the students killed.