HAVERHILL — The parents of a Haverhill woman who was killed while walking on Interstate 495 said they are not angry at the driver whose pickup truck hit her.
Anthony Feole, 44, the brother of Brandi Sullivan-Feole, said his parents want the man to know he is not to blame for the death of their daughter. It was just an unfortunate accident, they said.
"I feel sad for the guy," Anthony Feole said. "My parents hold no ill will towards him and feel bad for him. It was a total accident."
Sullivan-Feole, 27, a mother of three who lived at 94 Bellevue Ave., was killed shortly before 5 a.m. on Sunday when she was hit by a pickup truck on I-495. The investigation into why she was walking on the highway continues.
The accident happened in the interstate's northbound lane, just south of Exit 46 in Methuen. It was about six miles from her home.
Anthony Feole said his sister had a car, but that it was out of commission because of mechanical problems. He said he has no idea why she was walking on the highway.
"What she was doing there we just don't know," he said.
He also said Sullivan-Feole's three young children were with her parents when she was killed. He said the extended Feole family is trying to determine how to best provide for Sullivan-Feole's children, Jason Connolly, 8, Felicity Milot, 10, and Abigale Connolly, 1.
A preliminary investigation by state Trooper John McNeil indicated that a 1997 GMC Sierra pickup truck being operated by Raymond Cerri, 47, of Derry, N.H., was traveling north on I-495 when it struck Sullivan-Feole, who apparently was walking in the right travel lane. She was declared dead at the scene. Cerri was uninjured, state police said. Cerri, who is an employee of The Eagle-Tribune, has not been charged in connection with the incident.
State police said it could be weeks before they conclude their investigation. They said yesterday they have no further information to release.
Sullivan-Feole, an adopted child, was 2 years old when Anthony Feole was a teenager. He said they were very close but that lately they had not seen each other much because of his work hours.
Sullivan-Feole was a member of All Saints Parish, where her three children were baptized. Their apartment was next to the All Saints property.
Parish secretary Joanne Lemieux remembers the woman fondly and said she did what she was supposed to do as a Catholic mother.
"She was a really nice girl and I liked her very much," Lemieux said. "We baptized her youngest, Abigale, in March of 2007, and her daughter Felicity made her First Holy Communion in 2005."
Sullivan-Feole was active in Haverhill's Head Start program when her son, Jason Connolly, was a participant in 2004. Head Start, a federally funded program that is administered locally by Community Action, helps prepare children from low-income families for future entry into kindergarten while encouraging parental involvement.
A member of Head Start's policy council, Sullivan-Feole attended regional conferences and meetings with state officials to advocate for a new Head Start center at Fox School.
The crash remains under investigation with the assistance of the state police collision analysis and reconstruction section, the state police crime scene services section and state police detectives assigned to Essex County. The Methuen Fire Department and EMS, and MassHighway assisted state troopers at the scene.
