The cause of a Florida beauty queen's head-on crash into an 18-wheeler remains a mystery.
Kadance Fredericksen, 18, died Monday in Santa Rosa County, Northwest Florida Daily News reported. The driver of the semi sustained minor injuries in the crash. Fredericksen held the title of "Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA" and was a Miss Teen USA contestant.
"She had the whole world right there in her hands, and she was ready to take it on," her mother, Lisa Fredericksen, 48, told PEOPLE. "She was literally three minutes from home."
Police are continuing to investigate potential causes for the accident but so far have no explanation for why the vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic, PEOPLE reported.
"She was literally three minutes from home," Lisa told the news magazine, "I have no idea what happened."
Kadance Fredericksen had been accepted to several colleges including Florida State, Ole Miss, Alabama, and Auburn, ABC-3 reported. She planned to pursue her education and become a veterinarian.
In 2017, she founded the non-profit, "Kada's Promise." The organization provides teddy bears and blankets to children in foster care, homeless shelters, abuse shelters, and hospitals, the station reported.
A GoFundMe established for Fredericksen states that Kada's Promise has distributed over 12,000 teddy bears and blankets. The page notes that her hometown of Crestview honored her with the prestigious title of Citizen of the Year. So far, the page has raised $17,565, nearly reaching its goal of $18,000.
The Florida pageant community was stunned by Fredericksen's death and released a statement on Instagram.
"It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we share the passing of one of our beloved delegate, Kadance Fredericksen, Miss Okaloosa County. Our pageant community has lost a beautiful soul - one who was a true light in this world. She was ambitious, driven, kind, and a leader among her pageant sisters," the post reads.
Originally published on Latin Times
