A rising star of the LGBT community, Rochelle Hager was killed in a freak accident in Farmington, Maine on Monday, March 29.
The 31-year old Hager– better known as “Roe” and went by the username @roeurboat3– was a TikTok star, executive chef, lesbian, and an advocate for LGBT causes.
She was engaged to marry her fiancée, Brittanie Lynn Ritchie, at the time.
Rochelle Hager’s death was instant
Hager was driving during extremely windy conditions on Monday morning in Farmington when a 50 mile-per-hour gust of wind caused a branch from a pine tree to crash onto the roof of her 2015 Nissan Rogue.
According to CentralMaine.com, Farmington police Chief Kenneth Charles said after the crash that Hager was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hager was on the phone with Ritchie when the incident happened.
28-year old Ritchie told Maine’s Morning Sentinel: “It happened really quick. 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.”
Later on, Ritchie addressed their fans on TikTok through tears: “A lot of you guys have been asking what happened and I wasn’t ready to talk about it. It’s still new.”
Rochelle Hager’s life and advocacies
According to Ritchie, Hager had grown up in Florida even though her parents live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hager later moved to Maine in August last year.
Hager had managed to gather more than 163,000 followers on her TikTok account. People reported that she “participated in viral challenges like tasting hot sauces and lip-syncing to songs.”
She was also an advocate of LGBT rights and people in recovery, having gone through addiction. She had been sober for ten years.
She had gone to culinary school in Florida, but worked in Maine as a chef at Amici’s Cucina in Waterville, where she lived.
She was the executive chef at the Woodlands, a Waterville housing complex for seniors, before she died.
Benjamin Smith, the Woodlands’ director of operations, told the Morning Sentinel: “She did make such a huge impact on the lives of the residents she served.”
Rochelle Hager planning for the future
Hager and Ritchie had met last June through a mutual friend. After falling in love, they had planned to marry in October this year, and had already selected a venue and a photographer.
The two had documented on their relationship on TikTok. Together, they had over 400,000 followers. Ritchie said of Hager: “She was amazing.”
She told CentralMaine.com: “We had a following on TikTok, and she was all about positivity and making people laugh. She was that kind of person.”
Ritchie further said that her two children– Jensyn, aged 9, and Prestyn, aged 4– both loved Hager. They had planned to have another child also, and had wanted a daughter.
“We had picked out a name the night before for a girl,” she said.