Trial Starts in Death of College Student

The trial of a man accused of killing Point Borough's Kyleigh Sousa in Arizona in May 2010 is just underway.

Opening arguments were made Thursday in the trial. At the time of her death, Kyleigh was a junior at Arizona State University in Tempe, had gotten off work earlier than expected and was intending to eat at the IHop restaurant with a friend.

Instead, a driver stopped to ask her friend for directions. She walked over, the driver allegedly grabbed her purse, hit the gas and kept driving even as Kyleigh was dragged to her death, tangled up in the straps of her purse, according to AZ authorities.

Karen Montenegro, Kyleigh's mother, started The Kyleigh Sousa Foundation, in her daughter's memory, to help raise money for scholarships as well as those suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Montenegro, the wife of Brick attorney Nicholas Montenegro, also started the Mothers of Angels support group for parents who have lost their children.

Kyleigh was born in Toms River, lived in Brick and then, for many years, in Point Borough, where she graduated from Point Pleasant Borough High School in 2007, according to the biographical information posted on the home page of the foundation (see attached image).