Train Derailment Victims Had One Week Before Returning to College

Elizabeth Nass and Rose Mayr, the two early Tuesday morning train derailment in Ellicott City, were longtime friends from Ellicott City who graduated together from in 2010.

Mayr was studying at University of Delaware and lived in Newark, DE. Nass was a student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.

Don Egle, a spokesman for JMU, said that Nass would have been a junior majoring in interdisciplinary liberal studies when classes started next week. She was an honors student and in the university's honors program and was also in a sorority.

While Egle said he couldn't speak to what Nass would do if she had graduated, most people who obtain the degree she was seeking become teachers.

"It was just a tragic accident," Egle said. "The JMU community just feels a real sense of loss."

Egle said the university's thoughts were with the friends and family of Nass.

Dawn Thompson, the dean of students at the University if Delaware, echoed Egle.

“We are very saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of one of our community members," Thompson said in an email. "The University of Delaware community extends its condolences to Ms. Mayr's family and friends."

Mayr, who was majoring in nursing, also would have returned to Delaware's campus to start her junior year in less than a week.

The two girls posted to shortly before the train derailment from the railroad tracks.

“Levitating,” wrote a Twitter user named Rose Mayr at 10:51 p.m. under the name @r0se_petals, accompanied by a picture of two pairs of women’s feet dangling over the street in Ellicott City.

A Twitter user named Elizabeth Nass (@LizNassty) tweeted at 10:40 p.m. that she was “drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign,” which sits under the train tracks that cross above Main Street, with @r0se_petals.

According to their Twitter accounts, the girls spent a lot of time together over the summer, tweeting regularly about what they were doing.

Mayr shared photos from a trip to Dolly Sods, WV, and both said they were in New York City for short trips.

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• Ellicott City Train Derailment Victims Tweeted From Tracks Before Death