La Plata college student killed in crash

Family: Alcohol, drug finding is false

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Rachel Ellen Johnsen E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Rachel Ellen Johnsen, 18, was pronounced dead at Civista Medical Center in La Plata following the crash around 8 a.m. on Route 488 near Cool Springs Farm Place in La Plata.

Although Johnsen’s family said that a trooper told them that it is too soon to determine if alcohol or narcotics are involved, a Maryland State Police report listed speed, alcohol and narcotics, along with wet road conditions, as potential contributing factors in the crash.

However, Johnsen’s father, Lee, and a family friend, Don Simpson, cleaned out the vehicle and didn’t find evidence of alcohol, other than an obviously old bottle of liquor that had already crystallized, Simpson said.

It was the container Johnsen was interested in, not the contents, he said.

‘‘She was a college student and she liked [the design of] the bottle,” Simpson said.

This is not the first time tragedy has touched the Johnsen family.

One of Johnsen’s older brothers, Chad, died of leukemia in 1998 when he was 12, according to Mary Hasemeier, a La Plata teacher and sponsor of the school’s Memorial Garden, which honors students who have died.

During her junior year, Johnsen was vice president of the Memorial Garden Society and spent many days talking with Hasemeier about her brother.

They had a strong bond made more so when Johnsen donated bone marrow, which sent her brother’s cancer into remission for five years.

This past fall, with the help of Sharon Johnsen, solar lights were donated to the garden in Chad’s memory, ‘‘... never, ever thinking in our wildest dreams these lights would be for both of them,” Hasemeier said about Rachel Johnsen.

Johnsen, who had two MySpace profiles on the social networking Web site, indicated on one that she loved to dance and counted her parents, Lee and Sharon and older brothers, Kyle and the late Chad, as her heroes.

Graduating from La Plata High School in 2007, Johnsen’s voice was a familiar one to staff and students at the school where she made the morning announcements. ‘‘She was an outstanding young lady ... really a super sweet girl,” said Dan DeVitis, Johnsen’s guidance counselor during her years at La Plata.

‘‘It’s horrible,” added DeVitis about the accident. ‘‘It breaks your heart when you see these young kids passing away. It’s a horrible loss.”

Johnsen’s former art teacher, Josh Hettel, remembered her as a good student and very energetic.

Only in his third year of teaching, Hettel has not had to deal with a student’s death before Johnsen’s.

‘‘It’s sad, and it is weird,” he said of the death. ‘‘They’re younger than you and you expect them to go out and make a life for themselves.”

Glenn Jones, the former vice principal at La Plata who now holds that job at Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head, tries to get to know all his students.

Johnsen, he said, made it easy. She was outgoing and fun-loving, wearing her emotions on her sleeve and she was easy to get along with.

‘‘I am very close with my kids,” Jones said. ‘‘We spent a lot of time talking.”

Like others close to her, Jones can’t believe he’s talking about Johnsen’s death.

‘‘When I found out yesterday, I was dumbfounded,” he said. ‘‘We lose too many of our kids this way, there seems to be no end in sight.”

According to information provided by her family, Johnsen was studying interior design at Anne Arundel Community College and in addition to dancing, she enjoyed art design, cheerleading and camping with her family.

Hasemeier remembered Johnsen as an outgoing, gregarious girl, who had a flair for fashion.

‘‘She was a wonderful dresser,” the teacher said. ‘‘She loved clothes, always had heels on.”

In addition to her parents and brother Kyle, she is survived by her grandparents, James and Catherine Cleaveland; aunts, Janie Beam, Marlene Cleaveland and Patty Johnsen; uncles, James Thomas Cleaveland, James Beam and Dean A. Johnsen; cousins, Jesse Beam, Jenna Parker, Amber, Hayley and Ryan Cleaveland and Jeremy Johnsen.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. today at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in La Plata. A Mass will start at 10:30 a.m. at the church with burial at St. Ignatius Chapel Point Church in Port Tobacco.

Memorial contributions can be made to the American Cancer Society or Special Love, a Winchester, Va.-based organization that gives children with cancer opportunities to participate in normal childhood activities.

So far this year, state police are investigating two fatal crashes, including Johnsen’s and an accident on Route 228 on April 3 involving a 42-year-old Brandywine woman which might have been the result of a medical condition.