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CLEAR LAKE, Iowa >> North Iowa residents have helped pay for the return of a woman’s body to Hawaii after she died in a vehicle crash near Burchinal.
The Mason City Globe Gazette reports 31-year-old Melissa Alford was killed last month after state troopers say she pulled into the path of a grain truck.
Her mother, Deborah Mertens, says she’s “eternally grateful” that she and other family could say goodbye to Alford at a service over the weekend in Maui. Mertens says family members didn’t have the money to bring Alford back home. They only had about half of the $8,000 officials estimated that it would take to fly Alford to Hawaii.
Mertens started an online fundraiser, hoping to raise $4,000. In five days, people donated almost $5,500.
