A North Carolina high school cheerleader camping with friends Memorial Day weekend was fatally crushed by a tree days before she was set to graduate.
Loved ones identified the victim as 18-year-old Kara Bryson, a cheerleader at Tuscola High School in Haywood County, North Carolina.
Bryson died at the Penland Point Campground near Lake Chatuge Monday when a large tree uprooted by heavy winds during a storm fell on the camper-trailer she was sleeping in, according to officials.
"I put my hands over my head because I wasn't sure what it was," Bryson's best friend, Callie Parker, recalled of the sound of the tree crashing through, The Mountaineer reported.
Another friend's parents ran to Parker, told her to get out of the trailer, and call 911.
"It was still pouring the rain. I was just in complete shock," Parker said of witnessing the fellow cheerleader's death.
Bryson was pronounced dead when first responders arrived.
She leaves behind her parents and three younger brothers.
"This is a loss. A devastating loss," the Tuscola cheerleading team wrote in a Facebook post, in part. "A tragedy to everyone, most importantly to her family and friends... but also a horrible loss to our cheer family... We love you, Kara! Always a Tuscola Cheerleader. Always in our hearts. Forever missed!"
