Recent Minooka grad killed in crash

CHANNAHON TOWNSHIP – Friends of Madison C. Angus gathered Tuesday afternoon to honor the friend they said always went out of her way to compliment others.

Angus, 18, died in a car crash Monday night, a little more than a week after graduating from Minooka Community High School. On Tuesday, friends and classmates looked for ways to come to terms with her sudden death.

“We’re all friends. We all come together,” Jess Pratl said after she and Brynn Christensen, Hannah Crawley, Rachel Lambert, Nina Manzo, Lila Mereness and Carly Spirakes met and laid flowers at the scene of the accident.

Angus was a senior class officer at Minooka Community High School.

“Madison had really grown into a special person,” her friend Kaitie Daniels said Tuesday in a text message to Shaw Media. “She was so inspiring with her constant optimism about everything.”

Will County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said Angus’ parents reported her missing to Channahon police about 11 p.m. Monday when she failed to return home from work.

Angus was on her way home after her shift at Oberweis Dairy, according to her friends, when the accident occurred.

Channahon Police Chief Jeff Wold said police used cellphone data to find Angus about 2:20 a.m. Her 2005 Pontiac G6 had been traveling west on Tryon Street when she lost control a quarter-mile north of Pawnee Lane.

Hoffmeyer said the Pontiac went on its side, struck several trees and continued down the embankment. Angus was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle, Hoffmeyer said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Initial reports suggest high speed was a factor in the crash, but alcohol was not, Hoffmeyer said.

On scene Tuesday afternoon, bright flowers leaned against a scarred tree just up the embankment covered with shattered glass where the accident occurred.

“I’ve never met someone so passionate about everything she did and everyone she loved,” her friend Haley McCabe said in a text to Shaw Media. “She had a big heart to share.”

According to friends, Angus was excited about heading to college at the end of the summer.

“She was very passionate about going to Alabama for college,” Christensen said.

Friends and classmates quickly went to Twitter and Facebook to make plans for a candlelight vigil to be held 9 p.m. Thursday at the Minooka Community High School Central Campus parking lot.

Minooka Community High School sent a letter Tuesday to families in the district regarding the accident.

“It is with deep sorrow that we must share with you a tragedy that has occurred within our MCHS family,” reads the letter sent by Dave DiLorenzo, the district’s director of community relations. “Class of 2014 member Madison Angus was fatally injured in a car accident Monday evening.”

He said the school will provide support to the Angus family and counseling services will be available at both campuses for students and staff for as long as the need exists.