Monmouth County Woman Killed In California Crash

By DAVE COLBY and KAREN WALL (Patch Staff)

BODEGA BAY, CA -- An Ocean Grove woman who was serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in California has died in a car crash, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday.

Samantha Crowell, 21, was one of two people killed in the one-car crash that happened on Highway 1 in Bodega Bay Saturday, the Sonoma County sheriff’s office said. Bodega Bay is on the coast, roughly 90 minutes north of San Francisco.

Crowell was in a 2012 Hyundai Genesis with Daniel McKnew, 25, of Lake Jackson, Texas, when it hit a tree and burst into flames, authorities said. Both were stationed at the Coast Guard Training Center in Two Rock, sheriff’s Sgt. Cecile Focha said. Their families were located and informed of the deaths by members of the Guard, officials said.

Crowell had finished 2-1/2 years of training at U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook in January, according to posts on her Facebook page, and had arrived in California after a cross-country drive at the beginning of February.

Her last post was a photo of herself on the rocky shore at Bodega Bay with the Pacific Ocean behind her. In the photo she’s wearing sunglasses and a broad smile.

It was taken Feb. 13, just hours before her death.