THERE were emotional scenes yesterday as a young woman knocked down on a road in Co Antrim was laid to rest.
Family and friends of Shannon McQuillan (19) wept as her white coffin was carried to the church in her home village of Dunloy for Requiem Mass.
Floral tributes bearing her name and the words 'sister' adorned the hearse as hundreds of mourners followed the cortege to St Joseph's Church.
A daughter of Paul and Collette and sister of Paul, Charlene and Kelly, Ms McQuillan was described as talented and lively young woman.
The teenager died after she was struck by a van on the Moneynick Road near Toomebridge during the early hours of Saturday.
Her 21-year-old boyfriend, Owen McFerran was also struck and remains in a critical condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
Before the collision, Ms McQuillan - a law and criminology student - had been taken by ambulance from Magherafelt after she slipped on ice.
Two separate probes are investigating how the couple came to be hit by the van a short time after an incident on the way to hospital, which police attended.
The couple had left the ambulance before being knocked down.
Parish priest Fr Liam Blaney told mourners yesterday that the student was a joy to her family.
He said Ms McQuillan had a "determination to succeed and she was doing that in her law course... and was doing very well".
Prayers were also said for the recovery of her boyfriend.
Following Requiem Mass yesterday, Ms McQuillan was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.
