By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

FRYEBURG – The Saco River flowed by a deserted, sandy beach and its sun-drenched, grassy banks Tuesday, a day after a 22-year-old woman was killed by a large tree toppling onto her tent.

Dara J. Kaufman of Freeport died the day before her birthday while camping at a remote riverside spot with two friends. She was killed instantly by a maple tree blown down during a wild thunderstorm that whipped Western Maine on Monday night.

Kaufman and her Portland friends Darcy Forrest and Patrick Molton had pitched their tent on a beach at the far end of a rough dirt road, almost two miles from Route 5.

As a Virginia family, who had camped more than a mile from Kaufman and her companions, packed up their site Tuesday afternoon, they described the violent weather and the moment two shocked young people arrived at their tent the night before.

“It was a really heavy storm, with lots of lightning and really heavy wind,” said Eric Taylor, who had been camping and canoeing with his wife, Anne, and their son, Matt.

The three are from Fairfax Station, Va., and are in the middle of a Maine vacation.

“Two people came from their tent and asked to call 911,” Anne Taylor said. Neither Molton nor Forrest could find their cell phones in the debris left from the accident. They drove 1.4 miles to the Taylors’ site around 7 p.m. to call Fryeburg police and rescue officials.

“They stayed with us, and used our cell phones to call their parents,” Eric Taylor said. “We got them into our screened tent and gave them towels to stay dry.”

Anne Taylor said the two were very upset, but level-headed. “They were hoping there was a small chance she miraculously had survived.”

Fryeburg police Chief Wayne Brooking said Forrest and Molton were in the tent when the tree smashed down, but at the front end, near the flap. They were not hurt. He said Kaufman likely died of head injuries.

According to Kaufman’s obituary, Dara loved the outdoors and had participated in Outward Bound trips in the Northwest.

Kaufman is survived by her parents, David and Barbara Kaufman of Freeport, an older brother, Aaron, and many other relatives.

During high school, Kaufman had been a star field hockey player and a kind friend, Freeport High School Principal Tom Edwards said. He remembered she used to enjoy the outdoors with her friends.

Kaufman, a 2001 graduate of Freeport High School, received her bachelor’s degree in Hispanic studies last December from the University of Southern Maine, graduating with honors. She spent one year at the University of Seville in Spain, achieving fluency in Spanish. Before completing her degree at USM, Kaufman also studied at the University of Miami.

“She was interested in getting broad experience in what this contemporary world is all about,” Edwards said Tuesday, adding that Kaufman was an excellent, thoughtful student interested in other people.

“She had the most beautiful smile,” he said, after hanging up and calling back the newspaper to describe Kaufman’s expression. “Her eyes sparkled, and it was infectious.”

Before Fiddlehead Campground co-owner Eric Root returned to her campsite Tuesday afternoon with his Jeep and a small, attached trailer to pick up the camp’s remnants, it appeared the site had been touched very little.

A small radio buzzed softly. Coke and beer cans, and one orange were scattered through the branches and leaves of the massive downed tree that was pulled down, roots and all. Some spindly camping chairs were squashed near a collapsed picnic table. Flip-flops, bug repellent, a black plastic baseball bat and a white leather purse were spread around the sand. A bloodstained pillow had been left behind on the deflated green-and-white tent.

The maple tree – about 50 feet tall – lay stretched across the length of the beach.

There was no way of perceiving that the fallen tree, which had been hugging a small embankment by the beach, had been anchored by a weak root system, he said.

The three young campers did nothing wrong, Root said. “It was a scorchingly hot day. They pitched their tent in the shade.”

Fiddlehead Campground is part of a 1,400-acre tract of land, with 7.5 miles of riverfront, owned by Root, his sister Heidi and her husband, Rob Rose, all of Fryeburg. The primitive campsite they maintain is stretched along their river coverage, which is dotted with expansive beaches backed by meadows.

Root, whose face betrayed his emotional strain, said that he had closed the facility and asked the six campers there to pack up and leave.

“I don’t have an answer,” he said while sitting inside his Jeep, close to the site where Kaufman died. “I have no ability to respond cogently to what you’re saying.

“There’s no cosmic truth that comes out of this, you know? That poor young woman.”