Katie Traverso "always had the ability to make you feel like you were the most important person she was talking to,” a friend says.
Yanki Yuksel Photography Emily Jackson Staff Reporter
Mystery surrounds the death of a 19-year-old aspiring model and actress as investigators continue to piece together why she left a car on the Gardiner Expressway.
Former Sunshine girl Katie Traverso was fatally hit by a truck near Dufferin St. after somehow exiting the eastbound Toyoto Corolla in which she was a passenger at 2:30 a.m. Monday.
While investigators continue to study evidence and eyewitness reports, Traverso’s family and friends expressed their shock and grief on
Facebook. The messages paint a picture of a much-loved, vivacious girl whose career was starting to take off.
“She had that star factor, that ‘it’ factor,” said her manager, Derrick “D-Teflon” Ling, CEO of
Alliance Entertainment Group. “She was one of those people that was destined to go extremely far.”
Traverso met Ling in Toronto about two years ago, he said, adding she was dedicated to her work and stayed level-headed in the industry. An “irreplaceable gem,” she loved her mother, her life and friends.
“She was like an eclipse — only every 100 years do you ever get to see something so rare, pure and beautiful,” Ling said.
A country music
video Traverso starred in, released on the day she died, has since been made private.
Tara Shody, 19, grew up in the same Orangeville neighbourhood as Traverso.
“She always had the ability to make you feel like you were the most important person she was talking to,” Shody said. “I don’t think a day will go by without someone thinking of that beautiful smile.”
The 23-year-old woman who drove the car and a witness who saw the collision from another vehicle have spoken to police, said Traffic Services Const. Clint Stibbe.
There is no information about fault in the incident, Stibbe said, adding no charges have been laid and it isn’t known whether drugs or alcohol were involved.
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