A 20-year-old college student from Massachusetts died after she fell from a balcony at an Airbnb in Cancun, Mexico.
Leah “Lee” Pearse, a nursing student at Simmons University in Boston, locked herself out of her vacation rental on Jan. 6 and fell while attempting to get back inside, in keeping with her obituary.
Pearse climbed to the third-floor balcony when she slipped, fell and “died immediately,” the obituary says.
Pearse’s boyfriend, 21-year-old Augustine Robert Aufderheide of Prince Frederick, Maryland, was initially arrested by Mexican authorities after telling police that he and Pearse had gotten into an argument before she fell, in keeping with Southern Maryland News Network.
Aufderheide was later released after Pearse’s death was ruled an accident, in keeping with reports.
Pearse, from Newbury, Massachusetts, began working as a licensed nurse assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital while pursuing her five-year Master’s Degree in Nursing when she was 18 years old.
“For the past two years she was the happiest we’ve ever seen her, living her independent college life in Boston, hanging around together with her fabulous group of Simmons’ friends, and falling deeply in love together with her amazing and ever-loving boyfriend Bobby (aka Gus or Augustin),” her obituary said.
Her heartbroken father, Reggie Pearse, told NBC 10 he recalled the last time he spoke to his daughter.
“I just said to her, ‘Watch out,’ and she or he said, ‘I’ll try, Dad.,” he said. “She was extremely unpredictable, extremely quirky, extremely funny,” sister Anna Pearse told the news outlet.
Anna said her sister’s final hours were spent blissfully together with her boyfriend.
“All day, they were singing, ‘That’s Amore,’” Anna Pearse said. “She was so in love with him.”
Pearse graduated from the Classical Academy at Haverhill High School in 2020 before embarking on her nursing profession at Simmons.
“The Simmons University family is heartbroken on the lack of junior Leah Pearse, an lively and beloved member of our community,” university president, Lynn Perry Wooten, told NBC 10 in a press release. “Known for her confidence, compassion, and humorousness, Leah brought out one of the best in others.”
Massachusetts General Hospital remembered Pearse as a “vibrant” member of the hospital’s transplant unit.
“Her positive energy, creativity and thoughtfulness won the hearts of MGH’s patients and staff,” the hospital said in a press release to Boston.com. “Our community will come together in the approaching days to honor Leah’s memory.”
A 20-year-old college student from Massachusetts died after she fell from a balcony at an Airbnb in Cancun, Mexico.
Leah “Lee” Pearse, a nursing student at Simmons University in Boston, locked herself out of her vacation rental on Jan. 6 and fell while attempting to get back inside, in keeping with her obituary.
Pearse climbed to the third-floor balcony when she slipped, fell and “died immediately,” the obituary says.
Pearse’s boyfriend, 21-year-old Augustine Robert Aufderheide of Prince Frederick, Maryland, was initially arrested by Mexican authorities after telling police that he and Pearse had gotten into an argument before she fell, in keeping with Southern Maryland News Network.
Aufderheide was later released after Pearse’s death was ruled an accident, in keeping with reports.
Pearse, from Newbury, Massachusetts, began working as a licensed nurse assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital while pursuing her five-year Master’s Degree in Nursing when she was 18 years old.
“For the past two years she was the happiest we’ve ever seen her, living her independent college life in Boston, hanging around together with her fabulous group of Simmons’ friends, and falling deeply in love together with her amazing and ever-loving boyfriend Bobby (aka Gus or Augustin),” her obituary said.
Her heartbroken father, Reggie Pearse, told NBC 10 he recalled the last time he spoke to his daughter.
“I just said to her, ‘Watch out,’ and she or he said, ‘I’ll try, Dad.,” he said. “She was extremely unpredictable, extremely quirky, extremely funny,” sister Anna Pearse told the news outlet.
Anna said her sister’s final hours were spent blissfully together with her boyfriend.
“All day, they were singing, ‘That’s Amore,’” Anna Pearse said. “She was so in love with him.”
Pearse graduated from the Classical Academy at Haverhill High School in 2020 before embarking on her nursing profession at Simmons.
“The Simmons University family is heartbroken on the lack of junior Leah Pearse, an lively and beloved member of our community,” university president, Lynn Perry Wooten, told NBC 10 in a press release. “Known for her confidence, compassion, and humorousness, Leah brought out one of the best in others.”
Massachusetts General Hospital remembered Pearse as a “vibrant” member of the hospital’s transplant unit.
“Her positive energy, creativity and thoughtfulness won the hearts of MGH’s patients and staff,” the hospital said in a press release to Boston.com. “Our community will come together in the approaching days to honor Leah’s memory.”
