Sister missionary dies in N.Y. car accident

LISBON, N.Y. — Vanessa Bentley, a 22-year-old missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Tucson, Ariz., was killed Tuesday in a two-car collision on state Route 37 in the town of Lisbon in upstate New York.

Sister Bentley's companion, Natalie Love of Hemet, Calif., and the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, Nora McDonald of Madrid, N.Y., were also injured in the collision. Their injuries do not appear to be life threatening.

According to the police report, the accident occurred when the car carrying the two missionaries from the Utica New York Mission attempted to make a left-hand turn. The other vehicle hit the passenger's side of the missionary vehicle directly. Sister Bentley was sitting in the passenger's seat.

LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said that Sister Bentley had been serving as a missionary for 13 months at the time of the accident.

"Our sympathy and prayers go out to all those affected by this accident," Trotter said. "We pray that the Spirit of the Lord will bring comfort, peace and healing to all."

Vanessa Bentley is the fifth of Steve and Debbie Bentley's seven children and the third to serve an LDS mission (her two brothers both served missions in Ecuador).

"She sort of stuck out in our family," said her faither, Steve. "She was blonde; the rest of us have dark hair."

Her father said she had "an infectious laugh and a beautiful smile, and a real way with people."

That ability was noted by a non-LDS woman in Ithaca, N.Y., who met Vanessa when she and her missionary companion served in the soup kitchen there. She wrote to Vanessa's parents to tell them how impressed she was with the kindness and compassion so clearly manifest through her service. "She said even the priest who was over the soup kitchen was impressed with Vanessa," her mother, Debbie, said.

A former high school basketball player ("she was tall and lanky," her father said), Vanessa worked for the BYU audio-visual department while she attended college. "One time I was watching a basketball game on BYU-TV and I saw one of the players run over Vanessa and her camera," Steve said. "I immediately texted her to see if she was OK. Within a few minutes they were talking to her live on the TV. She said, 'I just got a text from my Dad asking if I'm OK. So yes, Dad, I'm fine!' "

Her grandmother, Eva Bentley, said she will always remember her as "a real fun person … she loved people, and people loved her."