Funeral services set for Mater Dei student who died after car crash in Clinton County
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Visitation services will be Tuesday and Wednesday and a funeral Mass on Wednesday for a Mater Dei Catholic High School student who died several days after a car crash in Clinton County.
Bella V. Brefeld, 16, of Breese died on Friday at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, according to her obituary.
Visitation will continue from 9-10:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Moss Funeral Home in Breese. A funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Breese.
Mater Dei had held a prayer service on Aug. 2 for Brefeld who “was critically injured in a car accident,” according to an announcement by the school on Facebook last week.
Over the weekend, the school posted a message saying “It is with heavy hearts that we share the loss of Bella Brefeld, Class of 2024. Please continue to pray for Bella’s family and all those whose lives she touched.”
“She enjoyed playing softball, volleyball, working out at the gym, and she had a close circle of friends whom she loved spending time with,” her obituary states. “Her happy place was always at the beach and she had a love for little kids and babysitting.”
The Clinton County Sheriff’s Department said last week it was investigating a single-vehicle crash that involved three juveniles and one of them was seriously injured in the crash.
The department received a call at 2:53 a.m. Sunday, July 31 about the crash on Covington Road just south of Pioneer Road, according to a news release from Sheriff Dan Travous on Tuesday.
A passenger, a 16-year-old girl from Breese, was ejected from the vehicle in the rollover crash. She was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Breese and then flown to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, where she died.
The vehicle, a 2018 Ford Fusion, was driven by a 16-year-old girl from Carlyle. She was not injured in the crash, according to the news release.
A 16-year-old boy from Bartelso had been in the back seat. He left the scene to get help and was later hospitalized for his injuries, the department said.
The Fusion was going north on Covington Road at the time of the crash.
“Prior to reaching the Santa Fe drainage ditch bridge the driver lost control of the vehicle causing it to leave the roadway to the east and overturn multiple times,” the news release stated based on preliminary information.
The case remains open as sheriff’s investigators along with Illinois State Police troopers are working to determine a cause for the crash.
No other information about the crash was released by the department.
This story was originally published August 9, 2022 at 1:02 PM.
