UF student Michelle Moses, 21, a fourth-year elementary education major, died while driving home to Mason, OH, a suburb of Cincinnati, over winter break.
On Dec. 20, while traveling north on I-75 near Richmond, KY, Moses lost control of her car just before 9 p.m. and struck the concrete divider between the northbound and southbound lanes, according to Trooper 1st Class Chris Lanham, a spokesman for the Kentucky State Police.
After getting out of her red 2007 Mazda 3, Moses was struck by a black 1996 Ford Mustang driven by Melvin A. Baker, 53. Baker was apparently switching lanes, Lanham said.
The impact sent Moses over the divider and into oncoming traffic, where she was struck by up to three vehicles, including a tractor trailer, Lanham said.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to an article in the Richmond Register, reports at the scene indicated Moses was talking on her cell phone when she was struck by Baker's car.
Baker was injured in the crash, the Register reported.
A service was held for Moses in Cincinnati on Dec. 23 and she was buried in New Jersey on the following day.
A memorial is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 23 at UF Hillel.
Alpha Epsilon Phi, the sorority which Moses belonged to, is planning the event.
A Facebook group created after she died had 748 members as of Monday night.
Andrea Simon, her roommate at Campus Lodge and sister in Alpha Epsilon Phi, said she was always laughing.
"Her reaction to everything was pretty much just laughing," she said. "Even when she was upset or like nervous."
She was very adventurous and always the life of the party, Simon said.
"She was always the first person on the dance floor," Simon said.
Every Wednesday they would try to go out to Gator City because it was ladies' night, Simon said.
Gator City was her favorite bar.
One time they went with a friend who was pretty shy and turning 21 that night.
By the end of the night, Moses had coaxed the girl onto the top of the bar where the both of them began dancing, Simon said.
"I think they got kicked off after a while," Simon said with a laugh.
Another night at Gator City, earlier in the semester, she met a guy named Michael Jellis.
Jellis, who was an exchange student from Australia, wrote in a Facebook message that he was standing at his favorite spot, next to the cigarette machine, when he saw Michelle and asked his American friend to talk to her while pretending to be Australian.
He asked his friend to tell her that he wanted to talk to her.
Jellis and Moses eventually began dating and fell in love.
Jellis, who was on his second exchange trip to UF, wrote that his favorite bar was also Gator City.
When asked why he came back to UF a second time, Jellis said he was thinking about it before the accident and decided it must have been fate that brought him back.
"I came back thinking I was coming for cheap beers and to watch football, but it just seemed like all those things brought me back to Gainesville to be in that spot at that time so that Michelle and I would meet," he wrote.
He said Moses was thinking about going to Australia with him and even talked about teaching aboriginals there.
She was fond of Australia, he said, partly because her father was also Australian.
He said some of his favorite memories of her were when she would help him study for his law school exams.
"I was stressed and cramming hard and Michelle knew this," he wrote, "but we also wanted to spend every minute together that we could (because I) had to go home soon."
"So to make me actually study Michelle would come to the law library with me and sit there and do all this extra work that she probably (didn't) need to do (because) she would ace her exams regardless."
He wrote they were often the last two people to leave the library, but she never complained or tried to distract him.
The last time they talked was while he was waiting for his plane back to Australia on the day that Moses died. They talked for two hours, he said.
They talked about visiting South Africa, Dubai and the Greek islands.
They also made a deal, he wrote, that they would get two dogs, and if he washed them, she would do everything else.
The last thing they said was that they loved each other, Jellis wrote.
Tim and Beth King, who lived next door to Moses' family in Mason for five years, said she would often baby sit their boys, Charles, 9, and Sam, 5. They liked her so much that when they found out she would be babysitting they would spend all day asking when she was coming.
Last spring, Tim said, when the family was deciding what to do for spring break, their son Sam immediately said "Hey, we could go to Florida to see Michelle."
"And he was totally serious," chimed Beth.
Leigh Flanders, who met her when they both pledged Alpha Epsilon Phi during their sophomore year, said Michelle loved shopping and Moe's Southwest Grill.
Flanders said she loved her job at the Sunglass Hut because it put her so close to the shopping. Her favorite stores were White House Black Market and Bebe.
She said they would go to Moe's after every football game.
She said Michelle also liked to volunteer and was excited about doing an alternative spring break this year with Habitat for Humanity.
Last spring she went to New Orleans with Habitat and helped rebuild houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Flanders said.
Flanders said she talked to her on the phone a few hours before she died, while she was driving home.
A few friends said they were comforted by the fact that she seemed so happy around the time she died.
Flanders said a big part of it was her love for her boyfriend Michael.
"I have been with her through numerous boys," she said, "but the way she was when she spoke about Michael, it even took me by surprise," she said.
"I've never seen her that happy."
