BETHEL – A former Edward Little High School running star was killed Saturday when her car went off Route 2 and landed top down in the Pleasant River.

Emily Fletcher, 21, was on her way home to Auburn from college in Vermont when the crash happened, according to Police Chief Alan Carr.

He said Sunday evening that he is continuing his investigation into the cause of the accident.

Fletcher was the daughter of Ralph Fletcher and sister of Edward Little High School track stars Ben and Sam Fletcher. Her mother, Lyn Elizabeth, died in 2001.

As did her brothers, Emily Fletcher also excelled at running track. She inspired her teammates, according to one, Anne Martin, a star in her own right.

“I wouldn’t be this good without her,” Martin told the Sun Journal during an interview in April 2001. “She comes from the legacy of the Fletchers,” she added.

Fletcher had brains to accompany her athletic skills. She was a member of the Auburn high school’s National Honor Society.

Chief Carr said her family members told him she was on her way home from school in Vermont to celebrate the Christmas holidays when the crash occurred.

He said that no one witnessed the wreck, which happened in West Bethel not far from the Gilead town line.

Carr said evidence at the scene led him to conclude that Fletcher’s 1991 Volvo sedan veered across Route 2 and struck a guardrail. After that, he said, the car became airborne, struck a tree then rolled over and came to a rest on its roof in about chest-high water.

Fletcher was either thrown from the car or washed out by the river’s current. Carr said the car was retrieved first.

“She was not in the vehicle,” he said, leading divers to search the river, where they found the young woman.

He said the car was filled with clothes and other belongings typical of a college student heading home for the holidays.

He said it’s believed that the accident happened sometime between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Saturday.

A man who lives near the crash site said he thought he heard an accident Saturday but it was too dark to see anything.

Carr said the wreck was found at about 6:45 a.m. Sunday when the man went back to look over the area, saw damage to the guardrails and then spotted the car in the river.

That stretch of Route 2 has seen several accidents in recent years, but Saturday’s wreck was the first fatality.

“I’m going to be really work hard to find out exactly why she went across that road,” the chief said. He added that it will take time to pinpoint the cause of the crash.