Pine-Richland, PA --The sister of a La Roche freshman who took her roommate's car without permission in the middle of the night, and then crashed into the back of a garbage truck in Lawrenceville
while being chased by police, said her sister "just wanted to come home."Sara C. Glaser, 18, of Friendship, died five hours after the 3:30 a.m. crash Tuesday near Liberty Avenue and 34th Street.
"My sister was a good person, everyone loved her," said Anna Glaser, 17. "She was the best basketball player you've ever seen."
"We're all pretty sick," her mother, Cynthia Glaser, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"I keep thinking I'm dreaming.""There's obviously two sides to Sara. That's not the girl that I knew. What a sweetheart she was here," said David Walchesky, who coached Glaser when she played basketball at Pittsburgh Allderdice last year. "That is a shame, and Sara, to me, is one you would never forget as a coach," he told the Post-Gazette.
Glaser's sister said Sara recently had some sort of confrontation with other students at La Roche, but she couldn't be specific about what happened.
"My sister was a good person, she was loved by so many people," Glaser said. "She just wanted to come home. She had forgotten her school stuff. Then I think she got scared when police tried to stop her and she eventually lost control of the car. She was trying to avoid the police because she didn't want any more drama."
Court records show Pittsburgh police arrested her in July for robbery and May for burglary. The most serious charges were withdrawn or dismissed, and she pleaded guilty to a summary offense.
In December she pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being caught drinking beer in a Shaler park, the Post-Gazette reported.
Defense attorney Ralph Karsh told the PG his client was swept up in situations that involved other people who were doing wrong.
"I think she was an impressionable kid. Although she did have a charismatic smile—very pretty, the whole package, she was tall and athletic and she seemed to be fairly bright—but she seems to have been easily led as well," Karsh told the Post-Gazette. "She seemed to be a nice kid who seemed to fall into the wrong trap."
"My sister was loved by so many people," said Glaser. "She just got scared."
Visitation for Sara Glaser is from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Thursday at McCabe Funeral home
, 6214 Walnut St. in Shadyside.A funeral mass will be 10 a.m. Friday at St. Maria Goretti Church
, 300 Edmond St. in Friendship.
Reported by Patch 9 hours ago.