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Judy Stanley (23) and Vybhav Gopisetty (26) were graduate students of the Tennessee State University (TSU) and were pursuing food science degrees in the College of Agriculture, the university said.
According to the local police, Stanley and Gopisetty died in an apparent hit-and-run incident on the night of November 28 in South Nashville.
The TSU on Friday released a statement after the two students were killed in the crash. They also identified the female victim, according to newschannel9.com. “The Tennessee State University family is mourning the loss of two TSU students killed in an auto accident on Thanksgiving night. Judy Stanley, 23, and Vybhav Gopisetty, 26, were both graduate students from India pursuing food science degrees in the College of Agriculture. Stanley was seeking a master’s, and Gopisetty a doctorate.”
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“Torres would not answer questions. Officers took a DNA sample. Investigation continuing,” the police said.
According to the police, Torres’ vehicle crashed into a Nissan Sentra, in which the two Indian students were traveling.
The pickup truck was speeding and ran a red light when it hit the passenger side of the Sentra, witnesses said according to ABC-affiliate News 9.
The car went off the road and through a fence before slamming into a tree on the Walmart property.
Stanley and Gopisetty succumbed to injuries and their families had been notified, police said, adding that Torres ran away from the scene.
According to eyewitness Louis Mireles, he was walking to the bus stop when he heard it happen and saw the GMC driver run away from the scene.
“Boom boom like that and I looked backward. It was right there, I would’ve been dead right there, but something told me to step back,” local News 4 quoted him as saying.
“They’re dead but we are going to make them alive again, so people get their chance in court to get him because that guy ran… he didn’t even care about their lives,” Mireles said.
Bharat Pokharel, Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, said the students were “humble, innocent and hardworking” with a “prosperous future”.
“I could not believe what had happened to the lives of these two young energetic scientists,” he said in a Facebook post.
The university students have raised–through a GoFundMe Page–more than USD 42,000 for their last rites and funeral in India.
Sharath Julakanti of the food science club at TSU has created the GoFundMe page.
According to the page, Vybhav Vipul Sudhir Gopisetty landed in Nashville with a dream to shine in the field of food science and completed his master’s with excellent scores and four publications in international journals.
“Judy Stanley came from a middle-class financial background; she was a girl with a positive attitude and hardworking in nature. She was passionate about helping poor people by participating in various volunteering and fund-collecting programs but finally a situation arose, where we are now collecting funds for her funeral,” the page says.
“We kindly request everyone to support them for their funeral which is to be held in India,” it added.