IU student Ashley Crouse mourned by friends, family following fatal car accident

It began as a small gathering Tuesday night, about 100 greek students arranged jaggedly along the entrance to the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. \nBut like a magnetic wave, it grew larger and larger as it moved toward Kappa Kappa Gamma, the home of Ashley Crouse, who died in a car crash early Tuesday morning. \nSeveral people make a crowd. A few dozen is a line. One hundred Greek students is a good start. More than a thousand is nothing short of a parade. \nIt was a mourner's parade.\nIt budged a few minutes after 6 p.m. and rolled slowly down Jordan Avenue, from sidewalk to sidewalk, absorbing dozens of new supporters along the way. With a police escort, it moved past Pi Kappa Phi. About 20 young men watched it pass while they waited to file-in at the end. \nBetween Sigma Pi and Kappa Sigma, it stopped a campus bus, "B to Stadium Pad." The driver had no choice but to wait.\nIts parts, mostly somber members of fraternities and sororities bearing their letters, held flowers and arrangements of flowers. They held tissues and boxes of tissues. And they held each other, sometimes creating bands of six or seven friends joined at the arms.\n"I think it shows the spirit of fraternalism," said IU Interfraternity Council President Jason Growe. "It's a shame we only saw it in a situation like this, but I think Ashley would be happy."\nIt moved on past Alpha Epsilon Phi. About 50 young women wearing black and green sweatshirts watched it pass while they waited to file-in at the end.\nSome in the wave held their cell phones in the air to get little photos of the undulating wave of people.\nStray students, apparently unaware of mourning walk for Crouse, stopped on the sidewalks or turned their heads two or three times in wonderment. \nBy the time it made it to Third Street, it spanned entirely across the road and stretched back past the Musical Arts Center.\nJunior Dave Dawson, of Phi Kappa Sigma, said he's never seen anything like it. \n"I think it's amazing," Dawson said. "A lot of times people think negatively of the greek community. In reality it's just a group of people who can come together and show our support."\nBy the time it reached the Kappa house, 6:42 p.m., Crouse's home and the site of her crash, her mourner's parade reached past the intersection of Jordan Avenue and Third Street, more than three full blocks.\nThe members of Kappa were waiting on the terrace in front of their house. When the procession arrived, they bowed their heads and said a prayer, then thanked everyone for coming. \nBut save a few who left, everyone stayed on the lawn of the Kappa house or across Third Street in front of the greenhouse. \nApparently, they weren't ready to let go.\nFreshman Lauren Berman, of Alpha Gamma Delta, said the walk was "overwhelming."\n"God forbid, if something like this happened to our house, I know they would support us," she said.\nMost of those still on the lawn either cried or consoled someone who was crying. Many bands of people, joined arm-in-arm, emerged in the crowd.\nSophomore Rachel Modiano, also of Alpha Gamma Delta, said she played soccer with Crouse for five years at Carmel High School.\n"Ashley would have loved this," she said. "I think she would have wanted everyone here to not mourn her death but celebrate her life."\nAt 7:30 p.m., the Kappa women went back inside their house. Those on the terrace waited to file-in at the end.\nDawson, the Phi Kappa Sigma member who made the 1.9 mile walk from Alpha Xi Delta to Kappa Kappa Gamma, also went to high school with Crouse.\n"She was very well-liked," Dawson said. "The fact that a few thousand people showed up goes to show that."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.