There is deep sadness in Arnprior after the death of 24-year-old Grace Glofcheskie. She was killed in Guelph, where she was attending university, struck by the driver of a stolen vehicle who was fleeing police. Ontario Provincial Police had tried to stop the car moments earlier at a R.I.D.E. check point but the driver took off. A short distance later police came across the crashed vehicle and the young woman who later died in hospital. It is clear from the scene of the crash at Norwich Street East and Woolwich Street that the impact was catastrophic. The stolen SUV took out a hydro pole before completely flipping over. At some point, the driver struck and killed Glofcheskie who was walking home early Sunday morning.
"This one bothers us, it's bothers us a lot,” says Constable Michael Gatto with the Guelph Police Service, “she was a university graduate, she had such a bright future, someone who was a value to society and to needlessly have her life taken away from her, it's hurts.”
Glofcheskie was originally from Arnprior but was attending the University of Guelph studying human kinetics. She had just completed her Masters and had accepted an internship in Florida at a sports facility, with a focus on golf.
Her death has shaken the faculty at the University of Guelph.
Brenda Whitesaid is with the university’s student affairs department, “She was always positive,” she says, tearing up, “just such a bright light. She was very involved with the department, a really engaged student, both with her academic department and the department of athletics.”
The gifted golfer played with the Guelph Gryphons but she was a rising star well before that in her home town of Arnprior. Beth Pope had played many times with her.
"She was destined to go somewhere,” says Pope, “not only was she a talented golfer but also a beautiful young student on top of it.”
Glofcheskie excelled both in academics and sports. At the Arnprior District High School, her awards adorn the school walls. The principal, Neil Farmer, says Glofcheskie had just popped into the school a couple weeks ago.
"She came in to visit one of our exercise science classes,” he says, “that showed a lot of character on Grace’s part. She wanted to give back to her school community and share her experiences, her love for exercise science. The students in that class will have a hard timing knowing she was just here and is now gone.”
Police are still looking for the driver of the stolen vehicle. The Special Investigations Unit is also involved with six investigators and three forensic investigators probing the incident.
The agency is automatically called in to investigate reports involving police where someone is killed or seriously injured.
