Elizabeth Anne Croke, 20, fatal crash victim

MERRIMACK – With a “larger-than-life personality and contagious laugh,” Elizabeth Anne Croke was known as the young woman who needed no introduction when she danced into the room, more often than not carrying a favorite tune.

Croke, an athlete with a fashion sense that included “an incomparable shoe collection,” was one of two drivers killed in the horrific, head-on crash last week on the Everett Turnpike near the Bedford-Merrimack town line.

Now, the family members and friends the 20-year-old Merrimack resident and 2019 Bishop Guertin graduate so loved are struggling to come to terms with their profound loss as they prepare for Friday’s calling hours at the Rivet Funeral Home, then Saturday’s celebration of life, which will take place at the Croke residence, according to her obituary.

Her family requests that everyone who attends the calling hours wear bright and bold colors, and that guests at Saturday’s celebration of life “please bring a favorite photo, written memory, or anything else that reminds you of Elizabeth, to share and to leave with the family,” according to her obituary.

“A great kid … just a great kid. She was incredibly well-liked,” Bishop Guertin varsity girls basketball coach Brad Kreick said of Croke, who was on the team for three years.

“Lizzy wasn’t a starter, but she certainly got plenty of playing time, Kreick added, noting that Croke was “part of three state championship teams.”

He said he’s spoken with many former and current Guertin students, especially those in the school’s athletic community, in the days since the crash.

“Obviously, it’s an incredibly sad loss for everyone,” Kreick said.

“It just stops you in your tracks,” he said of the school community’s reaction to the tragic news.

Meanwhile, visiting hours and a funeral service took place Monday and Tuesday, respectively, for Bedford resident Vincent “Vinnie” Forgione, the 24-year-old driver of the Honda Ridgeline that collided with Croke’s Audi Q5 in the southbound lanes of the turnpike early the morning of April 15.

State police on Tuesday issued an update in their investigation, including the medical examiner’s official identification of Croke and Forgione as the victims of the crash.

They said there were no witnesses to the crash, which they described as “head-on in nature.” The Audi caught fire, police said, and both drivers were pronounced deceased at the scene.

The preliminary investigation, police said, determined that Forgione’s Honda “was being sought by troopers on I-93 in Hooksett” after a caller reported seeing it “operating erratically” in that area.

About 18 minutes later, as troopers continued looking for the vehicle, calls began coming in for a crash in Merrimack.

Troopers, upon arriving at the scene, “determined that the same Honda Ridgeline” being sought by troopers “had crashed head-on” into the Audi that Croke was driving.

Although there were no witnesses to the crash itself, police said that further investigation “has revealed that a witness observed the Honda executing a U-turn on the Everett Turnpike in Merrimack and subsequently driving in the wrong direction – northbound, in the southbound lanes – moments before the crash,” according to police.

Troopers from the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Team were called in to process the scene, and are conducting an investigation “in order to determine exactly how the crash occurred,” police said.

They said that while “all aspects of the crash remain under investigation, impaired operation on the part of Forgione is a suspected contributing factor.”

Police ask anyone who may have any information to contact Trooper Brendan Tallon at the Troop B Barracks at 223-3849 or brendan.j.tallon@dos.nh.gov.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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