A popular TikTok user from Maine died on Monday after a gust of wind blew a large pine tree branch into the side of her vehicle.
Rochelle Hager, 31, was talking to her fiance, Brittanie Lynn Ritchie, 28, on a cellphone mounted in her vent while driving south on Knowlton Corner Road in Farmington just before 10 a.m. when a pine tree limb crashed onto the roof of her car, according to Central Maine. Farmington Police Chief Kenneth Charles said Hager was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It happened really quick,” Ritchie said. “She has a phone mounted in her vent. I just heard a crash, and then there was nothing. She didn’t see the tree coming. It was instant.”
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Ritchie said before Hager drove to Farmington for work-related reasons on Monday, the two discussed having a family together, adding, “We had picked out a name the night before for a girl.”
Hager had more than 129,000 followers on TikTok, where she regularly posted about her relationship with Ritchie and other events in their lives.
“We had a following on TikTok, and she was all about positivity and making people laugh,” Ritchie said. “She was that kind of person. She was my son’s best friend.”
Ritchie, who has two children, Jensyn, 9, and Prestyn, 4, added Hager was an executive chef at The Woodlands in Waterville, a complex that includes a restaurant as well as Park Residences, which offers homes to those living independently, an assisted living facility, and another facility for memory care.
“She did make such a huge impact on the lives of the residents she served,” Benjamin Smith, The Woodlands’s director of operations, told Central Maine.
The Washington Examiner contacted The Woodlands but was unable to reach Smith.
Personal care attendant and housekeeper Cindy Hollobaugh told the Washington Examiner, “We’ve had high winds, and they’ve even uprooted whole trees before, but I’ve never heard of one falling until the other night.”
Hollobaugh also said Ritchie formerly worked for The Woodlands.
An “advocate for addiction,” Hager was “clean for over 10 years,” Ritchie added.
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Ritchie has not yet announced any plans for a funeral for Hager.
Representatives for the Farmington Police Department did not immediately reply to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
