NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Thousands of miles away, two families are in mourning after a Thanksgiving hit-and-run in Nashville claimed the lives of two Tennessee State University students.
A gofundme has been set up to help send their bodies back home to India.
23-year-old Judy Stanley and 26-year-old Vybhav Gopisetty had high hopes to excel, not just for themselves but for their families back in India.
"They are irreplaceable," said Dr. Ankit Patras, their faculty advisor, "I won't be able to find such great students like them again."
Both students were attending TSU's college of agriculture. Stanley was seeking a master's and Gopisetty was working towards his doctorate.
"Judy was very bright and I would call her my star scientist... Vybhav was such a smart kid who wanted to do well, he wanted to be on the faculty one day," said Patras. "I'm still thinking it's a bad dream and I'll wake up and it'll be different but hard fact its reality what has happened."
But on Thanksgiving night, the two students were killed in an apparent hit and run. Police say a pickup truck, allegedly driven by David Torres, crashed into the students' car. The car then went off the road, through a fence and slammed into a tree on the Walmart property.
