January 21, 2005
Student dies in head-on collision
By Natalie Spray
Daily Staff Writer
ISU freshman Virginia Ortiz died early Thursday morning in a head-on car collision on U.S. Highway 30 between Cedar Rapids and Ames. Friends said they will remember Ortiz, who went by the name Jenna, as someone always willing to give some of her time.
Ortiz, 19, freshman in chemical engineering, was traveling on Highway 30 from Cedar Rapids to Ames around 7:12 a.m. when a car driven by Cristina Helmer, 50, of Marshalltown, crossed the center line near Route 131 and struck Ortiz's 1997 Dodge Neon, the Iowa State Patrol said.
"The police say [Jenna] was going eastbound, but she was on her way back to Ames," said Michael Daws, Ortiz' ex-boyfriend. "Unless she turned around for some reason, she wasn't headed east."
The Benton County sheriff, Belle Plaine Fire Department and emergency medical services as well as the Keystone Fire Department were on the scene. Helmer was taken by helicopter to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. No information was available on her condition.
Ortiz was proclaimed dead upon impact, Daws said.
Ortiz's mother, Carole Ortiz, of Cedar Rapids, called Daws around 11 a.m. Thursday to tell him about the accident and asked him to tell people about her daughter's death, said Daws, freshman at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids.
Although Ortiz was visiting her hometown, her family had not seen her since Sunday, said her brother, Ben Ortiz, 16. Daws, who attended Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids with Ortiz, went back to the school to tell former classmates.
"People are devastated," he said. "No one believes it's true ... People miss her already."
Allison Schnoes, freshman in engineering, said Ortiz was her best friend at Iowa State. She had plans to meet with Ortiz Thursday night to watch television, but instead she simply got to remember fun times they had together.
The two attended a Freshman Council event in the Memorial Union where a "hypnotist" was "reading the mind waves in the room." Schnoes and Ortiz were having henna tattoos drawn on their hands while the door prize of $100 was being awarded. The two began "sending mind waves" and agreed to split the rewards should their scheme work.
"It was actually Jenna's ticket that won, but she still split it with me," she said.
Those who knew her said this was not an uncommon theme.
"People did a lot of things for her," said Ecoterina Mariano, who ate breakfast frequently with Ortiz. "She gave them a lot of herself, too."
Although Ortiz was enrolled as a freshman in chemical engineering, Daws said she didn't know what career she wanted to pursue.
She was active in her sorority, Pi Beta Phi, and was a Student Admissions Representative leader who gave campus tours.
"She was always happy and excited for the day; I never saw her upset," said Mariano, sophomore in chemical engineering.
The case is still under investigation.
The wake will be 5 p.m. Sunday at Cedar Memorial Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids and the funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at St. Joseph Church in Cedar Rapids.
Photo: Courtesy/Allison Schnoes. Jenna Ortiz (left), Allison Schnoes and Brittney Thomas stand in front of the Campanile on Bid Day during rush last fall. Ortiz, who died in a car accident Thursday, was a freshman in chemical engineering and a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority.
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