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NEED TO KNOW
- A mother has died after being struck by falling tree branches at her daughter’s softball camp in Pennsylvania, according to a local media report
- Gendie Miller and her husband Ben Miller were supporting their 16-year-old daughter Marlee when the incident happened
- “It was devastating,” Ben told WTAE of the July 23 tragedy
A mother in Pennsylvania has been killed after being crushed by falling tree branches while watching her teenage daughter play softball.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 23, Gendie Miller, 49, and her husband of 17 years, Ben Miller, had been supporting their 16-year-old daughter, Marlee, in the Western Pa. College Showcase softball camp at Renziehausen Park in McKeesport when the tragedy occurred, per local ABC-affiliated station WTAE.
A description on a GoFundMe page set up by a family friend and coach on Marlee’s Nitro Fastpitch travel softball team said that a “terrible tragedy” had happened, confirming that Gendie had died in the “freak accident.”
“While watching their daughter Marlee perform multiple drills before scrimmaging in front of college coaches, they decided to sit under a large shady tree since temperatures were in the 90s,” the message on the page stated.
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It continued, “Suddenly, the tree started to make cracking noises and a very large branch fell, striking Gendie in the head, knocking her unconscious to the ground, and entrapping her under the tree.”
“Emergency services came, rushed her in an ambulance to Forbes Hospital Trauma Center in Monroeville to evaluate whether or not they could handle the situation or life flight her to Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. Before they could get to Forbes, she stopped breathing and was pronounced dead on arrival,” the post added.
Gendie’s husband, Bill, said of his wife following the tragedy, “She would never miss a practice or an event, high school, travel ball, whatever it was. That was who she was,” per WTAE, adding that multiple branches, which were around 10 to 12 inches thick, had fallen on his wife.
He recalled hearing a cracking sound just before 7 p.m. local time, the outlet noted.
“I said to my wife, ‘Let’s go.’ I jumped out of my chair, felt a small branch of some sort that grazed my leg. And I immediately turned to my right to look back at her, and she was face down with large, multiple branches and limbs,” Bill told the station.
“To be so traumatic, and with the heavy load of the type of branch and limb, it was devastating. And I can tell you that she didn’t die from her heart, because her heart’s too big,” he added, per the outlet.
“She would give you the shirt off her back,” he said while paying tribute to his late wife, continuing to the outlet, “I think I’m in shock, and surreal that it obviously hasn’t hit me the worst – nor my daughter, for that matter. She is being very strong. And, you know, worried about that, just as I’m worried about her.”
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McKeesport mayor, Michael Cherepko, told the outlet in a statement on Thursday, July 24, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time. An evening that started like any other, with families and friends gathered in the park for a game, has ended in tragedy after this horrible accident.”
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The GoFundMe page set up to help the family financially amid the tragedy had raised over $48,000 as of Monday, July 28.
The McKeesport Police Department and a spokesperson for the city’s Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. PEOPLE has also reached out to the GoFundMe organizer, Michael Mull, for a tribute from the family.
