Rocklin Mourning Woman's Sudden Death In Scotland While Studying Abroad
ROCKLIN (CBS13) — A young Rocklin woman studying abroad in Scotland died suddenly this week, leaving her family and a community in shock and mourning.
Kate Vasconcellos, 24, was known here as a bubbly driven student who went off to Scotland to pursue her dreams. Now, the community is having a hard time believing she's gone.
She looks happy and healthy in pictures, but her family says she died suddenly in her dorm room Tuesday, after complaining of stomach pains.
Her father posted a statement on Facebook reading, in part, "She did have a surgery to deal with an infection, which the medical staff stated that they were not fully able to determine the source of. However, all indications were that her recovery went fine, and that she had been feeling much better."
At her parents' neighborhood in Rocklin, family friends like Ted Blumstein are upset.
"That's a tragedy for a young person to die like that," he said. "You know, we can accept when people my age go because we've lived our life but when someone that age goes you don't want to hear it."
Vasconcellos would have graduated next month, from St. Andrews University, one of Scotland's oldest institutions, and one of the most prestigious in Europe. In fact, her dad says, Kate just gave her honors thesis presentation one week ago on Friday.
Alyse Whiting, also from Rocklin, is getting ready to study abroad, too.
"That's not something you think of," she said. "It makes it harder to go especially because I could leave America and not come back - that does make it really hard to leave."
Friends say Vasconcellos was driven early on. Her dad says she was in every theater production at Whitney High School, and was the president of the drama club.