Marli Hamblin was simply and tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 15-year-old laid out on a blanket in her family's driveway in Syracuse, Utah, to sunbathe Friday, listening to her iPod through headphones, when her older sister, who did not know she was there, opened the garage door and backed out of the driveway in the family's Chevy truck, reports the Chicago Tribune. Marli, who had just made her high school's cheerleading squad, suffered head trauma and brain damage and was taken off life support Sunday, reports ksl.com.
"They determined there was no brain activity," cousin and LDS bishop Lance Hamblin says. "There was no chance of recovering, so the decision was made to let her pass and return to her Heavenly Father." Syracuse police said Saturday that no charges would be filed, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, while Marli's grandfather, Ron Hamblin, told Fox 13 over the weekend that the sister was "having a very difficult time, beating herself up." A local police officer adds that the driver, who she didn't name, was "really struggling." (Another freak accident, this one involving a boat, claimed a 16-year-old girl's life in Connecticut last week.)