‘Happy, bubbly, excited’ Disraeli crash victim was driving to job interview

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This article was published 19/01/2012 (5011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – The 19-year-old who died after her SUV went through a guardrail on the Disraeli Bridge and hit the ice below Wednesday is being remembered by her closest friends as a sweet, bubbly young woman who dreamed of becoming a nurse.

Kaitlyn Jenna Lee Fraser was on her way to a job interview when a future filled with so much promise was cut short.

She had graduated from River East Collegiate in June and was working at a McDonald’s restaurant in East Kildonan.

Fraser’s mom lives in the Yukon, and the teen had been staying with close family friends, the Browns, for the past three years.

Donald Brown, an officer with the Winnipeg Police Service, was the first one in the family to receive the terrible news.

“The officers, when they came here… didn’t know whose house they were coming to,” said Brown, 57, who said he wants Fraser remembered for her “infectious” personality.

He said when officers showed him Kaitlyn’s driver’s licence and asked if he knew her, he thought she might be in trouble with the law. He was wrong.

“You put your cop face on, and take your quasi-Dad hat off, and deal with it,” he said.

Fraser graduated high school with Brown’s daughter, Malyssa, 18. The two considered themselves sisters.

On Wednesday afternoon, a framed photo of Malyssa, her brother Mark and Kaitlyn in their McDonald’s uniforms sat in the corner of the Browns’ living room. The afternoon of her death, Kaitlyn had been on her way to a job interview with a clothing chain and told her family she’d be back for dinner.

“When she left the house, she was all dolled up for this interview, happy, bubbly, excited,” said Donald Brown’s wife, Valeri Brown.

But as she headed south on the Disraeli, she lost control of her vehicle, hit another vehicle and then crashed through a guardrail, landing upside-down on the ice below.

Only last Friday, the family had gone out to dinner to celebrate Fraser’s birthday. Valeri Brown said Fraser wanted to be a nurse and was applying to go to the University of Manitoba to study.