We Miss You Kayla!'s Blog

Accident victim aspired to be an actress
By SHARI SANGER
Evening Sun Reporter
Article Launched: 01/24/2007 10:24:43 AM EST

When Kayla Miller got a digital camera for her 13th birthday, her mother said, it was the start of something she'd become known for – taking photos of herself.

"Once we put the camera in her hands and once she started taking pictures, she was posing," her mother, Cherri Miller, of New Oxford, said Tuesday.

She said Kayla, 16, would even aim the camera toward a mirror so she could capture her own image.

"She was a beautiful girl. The camera loved her," she said.

But the aspiring actress didn't just take pictures of herself. She also liked having snapshots of her friends.

She liked to save memories.

"That's all she would talk about," Cherri Miller said.

Those memories ranged from photographs and notes to even candy bars – anything that meant something to her, she said.

And now, memories are all Kayla's family and friends have of her.

Kayla was killed early Sunday morning when the car she was a front-seat passenger in crashed into two trees off Musselman Road in West Manheim Township.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy Tuesday showed Kayla died of multiple blunt-force trauma, the York County Coroner's Office said.

The 17-year-old male driver of the
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car was in critical condition at York Hospital on Monday, state police said, but an update on his condition was unavailable today. Police said the male and female rear-seat passengers, both 17, were injured but have been released from the hospital. But a woman who call The Evening Sun, identifying herself as the male passenger's grandmother, said he is still in the hospital. All three teens – who police would not identify – are from the Hanover area.

Cherri Miller said her daughter was a typical teenager who loved to talk on her cell phone, type on her computer and hang out with friends.

Kayla always had a smile on her face and lived every day to the fullest, she said.

"She was the type of kid that brightened everyone's world," Cherri Miller said.

Ursula Miller said Kayla – her granddaughter – was her whole life. Kayla lived with her at her home two houses away from where Kayla's mother lived with her two siblings. Kayla has a 15-year-old sister, Jennica, and a 4-year-old brother, Aaron.

Jennica, who grew closer to her sister this year because they were in high school together, is coping with the loss, Cherri Miller said. She said she hasn't told her son the news yet.

Kayla was a 10th-grader at New Oxford High School, where she transferred at the end of last school year. She had previously attended school in the South Western School District.

"She was a quiet, down-to-earth teenager," said Kayla's grandfather, Sidney Miller, of Hanover.

He said Kayla was "small-featured" for her age.

Some of her friends called her "Shorty" and "Little Kayla" because she was under 5 feet tall and very petite for her age, her mother said. She weighed only 87 pounds.

"She was a good kid and she was loved by many people," Cherri Miller said.

While family members are dealing with their own loss, they also expressed wishes for the other teens involved in the crash.

"We wish the best to the driver É and the other passengers É and that all teens learn from this tragedy," Cherri Miller read from a statement prepared by the family.