Bushra Abdi & Zeynab Abdalla, Teens Pulled From Chaska Pond, Remembered By Fellow Students
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A memorial service took place Wednesday for two young women who drowned after their car crashed into a Chaska pond.
Students at Normandale Community College in Bloomington organized the remembrance for Bushra Abdi and Zeynab "Hapsa" Abdalla, who were both 19.
The car the women were in was found Sunday evening in the bottom of a pond off Highway 41 in Chaska. Police say it appears the vehicle veered off the road and landed in the water. It is not clear what caused the accident.
Abdi and Abdalla were cousins and best friends. They were full-time students at Normandale, and are described by classmates as "inseparable"
"They always had a smile for me every time I see them in the hallway or in the cap center," said Ridwan Osman Ali of Normandale Communty College's Muslim Student Association. "Brave, bright and beautiful. They were super friendly and had a great personality that lighted up everyone around them."
Members of the Muslim Student Association and other student groups held a memorial service so that students could express their grief and admiration.
"They are part of us. They were students here, they were friends," Ali said.
The women died together as they took a break together from their overnight jobs Saturday morning. Several hundred people gathered at a cemetery in Burnsville for their burial Tuesday.
Mosque leader Q Mursal offered words of comfort to the students.
"And that is a testimony of the character of our two sisters Bushra and Zeynab," Mursal said. "When Allah loves someone, when God the Almighty loves someone, we return to Him. It's Him that takes it back. And the part that I want us to keep in mind is that they are in a better place."
Chaska police released a statement Wednesday saying the case is still under investigation.
