For Maghan Goodsell, an ASU nursing sophomore, the death of her friend Jill Boda is still surreal.
"I'm waiting for her to walk into class and sit down next to me," Goodsell said. "It was so sudden and everybody is still so in shock about it."
Boda, also an ASU student, and her boyfriend Evan Parkison, a Collins College student, died Wednesday evening following a collision on the Loop 202 freeway.
At about 8 p.m., Boda, 20, and Parkison, 21, were sitting in Boda's parked car in the emergency lane waiting for assistance, according to an Arizona Department of Public Safety report.
A car slammed into the back of Boda's car, sending it across four lanes of traffic into the center barrier where it caught fire, the report stated.
The alleged driver of the vehicle, 25-year-old Tempe man Nicholas Fina, reportedly attempted to flee the scene but was caught by DPS officers who would later charge him with vehicular manslaughter, according to the report.
Whether Fina was impaired at the time of the accident will be determined at a later time, the report stated.
University officials were deeply saddened to learn of Boda's death, said Leah Hardesty, an ASU spokeswoman.
"At this time we are focused on offering counseling services for those who knew Jillian and working with her family to help ease their pain during this difficult time," she said.
Goodsell said she is going to remember Boda for her sense of humor.
"She was the life of everything, always making jokes, always laughing," she said. "There was hardly ever a time when I saw Jill sad or down."
The two met the first day of classes their freshman year going to philosophy, Goodsell said.
"Neither of us could find the right room," she said. "We both went to the wrong room and started talking.
"We've been friends since then."
And there were plenty of stories and memories about Boda, who made Goodsell's dorm her "second home."
"She liked to skip class a lot, she was always just the life of everything," Goodsell said. "She was a self-proclaimed fashion expert. We'd just sit around and joke all day long about what people were wearing."
And though Goodsell said she didn't know Parkison well, Boda was very picky about her boyfriends.
"Jill always talks about him," she said. "He was just like Jill."
Reach the reporter at: matthew.g.stone@asu.edu.
