The BV West community mourns the death of 2016 graduate, Ashley Lane Marrs. Marrs was reported missing from her University of Arkansas dorm room on Friday, Sept. 16 and was later found dead in her car in a hotel parking lot near campus.

Word of Marrs’s death spread quickly among students at the football game on Friday evening. Marrs’s sister, sophomore Carlie Marrs, is active on social media and used the medium to notify Lane’s friends.

Principal Dr. Brett Potts sent an email informing teachers of the tragedy on Saturday and to students and parents on Sunday afternoon. Potts’s emails emphasized Marrs’s positive legacy and coping services. His note to teachers epitomized the BV West cornerstone of family.

“Lane was very special to our school and she will be dearly missed,” Potts said. “We are a strong community and at a time like this we must work together to provide guidance and support to our students.”

In Potts’s note to parents he explained how students struggling with the loss could get support. He noted that counselor’s were available on Monday and that Blue Valley has student wellbeing services available.

www.bluevalleyk12.org/studentwellbeing

Many questioned the cause of Marr’s death. Her parents, Jeff and Jan, were forthcoming about the cause in the first paragraph of a GoFundMe page they set up on Monday to help other teens battling depression: “After a long battle with PTSD, depression and anxiety, our beloved 18-year old daughter, Lane, took her own life.”

The Lane Marrs Memorial Fund raised more than $15,000 in the first 24 hours. In a phone conversation the day before, Jan’s empathy to Marrs’ friends and other teens suffering from depression was evident.

“Lane had a lot of friends (at West) and I want them to know that there was nothing they could have done,” Jan said. “Lane’s biggest problem wasn’t her depression or her anxiety, it was that she wouldn’t talk to anyone who could help.”

Services for Ashley Lane Marrs have been established: