'It was nobody's fault,' mother says of teen daughter fatally struck by train

Emel Safoglu clutched her daughter's striped shirt and held it to her face as she took in a breath. The long-sleeved T-shirt still smelled like her 13-year-old.

"She was just full of life," the mother said.

Reyhan Safoglu, a rising eighth-grader at Lake Braddock Secondary School, had been out hiking Wednesday with her 21-year-old brother and a 13-year-old cousin, exploring the silty shallows of the Bull Run near Clifton, Virginia, in Hemlock Overlook Regional Park. The family had spent the past days celebrating the end of Ramadan and capped off the holiday with a day outside with nature.

Reyhan's brother, Baris Safoglu, said the young teens saw a train trestle spanning the water and climbed atop the bridge. Then they heard the blare of a VRE train, turning a bend in the tracks a few hundred feet away.

The siblings' cousin, Michael Lorentz, said that when he heard the horn, he told Reyhan: "Run!" The boy jumped across a gap to the opposite track bed to avoid the oncoming train. But Reyhan did not.

"It was nobody's fault," her mother said. "It was just her destiny. If she wanted to jump, she could have jumped. I think God said, 'Come join me in heaven.' . . . I think this was her day to go."

Baris Safoglu, a senior at George Mason University studying finance, said that when he heard the train, he began running toward the teens. Before he could reach them, Reyhan had been hit.

The brother wrapped her head in his own T-shirt and picked up her body. He carried her off the bridge to the nearby embankment and held her in his arms.

Michael recalled how quickly it happened: There were only 10 seconds between the siren sounding and the commuter train striking his cousin.

On Thursday, Emel Safoglu sat in her living room as family and friends came to grieve.

Her daughter, born Reyhan Amber Safoglu on May 29, 2004, in Salisbury, Maryland, was ebullient and known for being wise beyond her years, the mother said. Emel Safoglu said that she shared a bed every night with her daughter. The teenager also gave her single mother romantic dating advice.

Reyhan was an honors student who earned A's and participated in competitive cheer, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer and volleyball. She sang for President Barack Obama in a children's chorus and also accompanied singer James Taylor during a performance at the Kennedy Center. She played violin in the school orchestra and taught herself to play "Stairway to Heaven" on the ukulele.

"She wanted to make me proud all of the time," Emel Safoglu said. "It was almost like she knew her time here on earth was short, and she was trying to fit it all in."

The night after her daughter's death, Emel Safoglu slept with the black-and-white striped shirt. The same night, the girl's cousin saw Reyhan in a dream bathed in light wearing the same shirt, Emel Safoglu said, which she saw as a message from her daughter.

"I thanked God every day for my children," Emel Safoglu said. "I guess it was just too good to be true."

Michael said that he could not stop thinking about his cousin or the moment of her death. To be closer to her, he slept curled up on a cot in Reyhan's closet Wednesday. In remembrance, Baris Safoglu returned to the train bridge Thursday morning and collected rocks from the riverbed that were still covered in his sister's blood.

Emel Safoglu recalled that her daughter had once talked about her own funeral. She didn't want anyone to wear black, the mother said. Instead, she wanted friends to celebrate her life with joy. And most of all, the mother said, her daughter had requested that her family plant a tree near her grave.

The family will bury Reyhan in the coming days. Despite the extent of her injuries, Emel Safoglu said, her daughter's face was untouched, and the family plans to allow people to say goodbye with an open casket.

"I'm going to mourn a little while," Emel Safoglu said, holding tight to her daughter's shirt. "And then I'm going to be happy."