'My baby girl was a beautiful soul,' mom says of Lafourche teen killed in UTV crash

A 15-year-old girl was killed and another youth was hospitalized with serious injuries Saturday after their four-wheel UTV overturned in Grand Isle, authorities said. 

Reese Rios, of Cut Off, was a cheerleader at Houma Christian School.

"Just know that she lived her life to the fullest," her mother, Lesley Rios, told The Courier and Daily Comet via a direct message Monday on Facebook. "She never slowed down. She was a fearless young woman who loved so hard and so many people. She never knew a stranger."

Reese's two sisters and two brothers adored her, their mother said.

"She just knew how to make you laugh even when you didn’t want to," Lesley Rios said. "My baby girl was a beautiful soul, she was so so vibrant. She made a presence everywhere she went. She loved to be the center of our attention. ... She was our baby, and she knew it. She was the kind of person who protected everyone she loved, even if it was at her own expense."

Reese had made tryouts in March and had recently returned from cheer camp, said Kristi Landry, the coach of Houma Christian High's varsity cheerleading squad.

In that short time, Reese left an impression on the entire team, Landry said.

"Reese had such an outgoing personality that whenever you would talk to her you would just immediately drawn to her and automatically her friend," Landry said. "She was just so warm and fun to be around."

Names of the others in the UTV wreck were not immediately released because of the children's ages, Grand Isle Police Chief Scooter Resweber.

The 15-year-old's godfather, an adult, was driving the Utility Terrain Vehicle, a four-wheeler similar to a golf cart. He submitted to a breath test that found no signs of alcohol, the chief said.

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Previously:Woman dies after car strikes utility pole along La. 308 in Lafourche Parish

The Police Department received a 911 call through Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office dispatch at 12:12 p.m. Saturday, Resweber said

Officers found a UTV had flipped at the intersection of Caminada Drive and La. 1, about 100 yards from the highway's end, he said.

The wreck's cause was not immediately clear, Resweber said.

"That is still under investigation, that is why we are being assisted by State Police, because there are no other witnesses other than the driver, and he was pretty shook up and said at the time he couldn't recall exactly what happened," the police chief said Monday. "He said something about the rear tire seemed to have just kind of dipped, he called it a dip, and then it started to skid and slide and flip."