The family of a teen girl who fell to her death near a dam in Big Bear wants to honor her legacy by opening a bakery.
Big Bear resident Isabella Fanuele, 18, who was known to loved ones as “Bella,” was hanging out with friends beneath the Highway 18 bridge next to the dam just after 11 p.m. on Tuesday when the tragic accident occurred.
“Her and a bunch of her friends were just going under there, like kids have been doing for a bunch of years,” Bella’s distraught father, Danny Fanuele, told The California Post.
Bella, who had just graduated from Big Bear High School, was looking forward to starting college and pursuing her dream of opening a bakery, he said.
Bella’s father said she had previously started her own cooking business in school and wanted to open her own bakery.
Loved ones have now launched an online fundraiser to help make Bella’s dream a reality.
“Her family is now facing the unimaginable, and they need support to help them through this difficult time,” a description on the GoFundMe page reads. “Funds raised will go toward funeral expenses, counseling for those closest to Bella, and, if possible, creating a bakery in her name to honor her memory and her dreams.”
The page described Bella as “full of hope and excitement for the future,” adding that her “energy and kindness touched everyone around her.”
As of Friday morning, the effort had raised more than $11,000 of its $14,000 goal.
Fanuele described his daughter as a terrific student who was “always on the honor roll.” She excelled at varsity softball and golf, according to her high school web page.
The teen was seen posing with her brother at her high school graduation, wearing a white robe and clutching two bouquets of roses just two weeks before she died.
The bridge where the tragedy occurred is a local landmark spanning two sides of a rocky embankment adjacent to Big Bear Dam, a concrete structure more than eight stories high that’s located on Big Bear Lake.
Investigators say Isabella was underneath the Highway 18 bridge with friends when she fell from the top of the bridge’s support structure.
Deputies and firefighters with the Big Bear Fire Department traversed the hillside to reach her, finding her at the bottom of the gully.
Dramatic video from the scene showed firefighters using a crane to lift a stretcher out of the embankment where Isabella fell.
Big Bear authorities said a preliminary investigation found no indication of suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.
An investigation remains ongoing.
