A Mainland High School student was killed Monday morning while walking along a busy International Speedway Boulevard, Daytona Beach Police said.
- Stephanie Boebert, 19 died at scene
- Boebert was walking along International Speedway Boulevard
- Mainland High student active in AFJROTC
Stephanie Boebert, 19, was trying to cross Nova Road around 8 a.m. when a vehicle turning right onto Nova Road hit her, police said. She died at the scene.
Police identified the driver of the vehicle as Paul Dborak, 62.
Susan Boebert, Stephanie's mother, said she had to tell her son the "horrible" news and spoke Monday night about her daughter.
"She was my baby," Boebert said.
Michael Boebert, Stephanie's younger brother, added: "When you hear news like that, you think, This cannot be real."
The Boebert family thinks Stephanie missed the bus and decided to walk the 4 miles from their home to Mainland High School. Her family said she was born with a genetic disorder similar to Down syndrome.
"They said she'd never walk, never talk," Susan Boebert said.
Stephanie learned to do both, though.
She earned her high school diploma as a 2016 graduate but deferred graduation status so she could attend Mainland one more year and gain additional work-life skills, Principal Cheryl Salerno said in a statement.
"We are deeply saddened to lose this very special Buccaneer — to say that our hearts are broken could only begin to describe the emptiness we now face each day without Stephanie," Salerno said.
Boebert was also part of the Air Force JROTC program and served as a student aide.
Mainland has made a crisis team available at the school for counseling.
"If you tell her it can't be done, she'd show you how to do it," Susan Boebert said of her daughter.
Stephanie Boebert, 19, was trying to cross Nova Road around 8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 17, 2016, when a vehicle turning right onto Nova Road hit her, police said. She died at the scene. (Photo provided by the Boebert family)