A beauty queen died in a car crash just three minutes from her home after veering into oncoming traffic for ‘reasons unknown.’
Kadance Fredericksen, 18, died Monday after she collided head-on with a tractor-trailer, her mother revealed.
The Miss Teen USA contestant was driving on a straight section of Highway 4 near Hurricane Lake Road in Milton, Florida, when the crash happened at 1.30pm. Her heartbroken mom Lisa Fredericksen, 48, told People: ‘I have no idea what happened.’
Horror smash: Miss Teen USA pageant queen Kadance Fredericksen, 18, died on Monday when, for ‘reasons unknown,’ her sedan crossed the center line of the road and crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer
Tributes have poured in for the young beauty queen, who used her platform for charity works and through her own initiative, Kada’s Promise.
‘She had the whole world right there in her hands, and she was ready to take it on,’ Lisa said.
Kadance suffered abuse and neglect as a young child, until she was taken in by her father and stepmother Lisa, who formally adopted Kadance in 2017.
Lisa said Kadance was a shy girl in her childhood, and her move into the pageant world came ‘after years of therapy.’
‘She came home one day and she said, Mama, can I do a beauty pageant? And I said, Well, yeah, but if you do a beauty pageant, you have to talk in front of people, because she still didn’t talk a whole lot,’ she recalled.
Tragic death: Tributes have poured in for the talented teen, who ‘had the whole world right there in her hands, and she was ready to take it on’, her heartbroken mother said
Collision probe: An investigation is still ongoing into the crash, which unfolded at 1.30pm on a straight stretch of Highway 4 near Hurricane Lake Road in Milton, Florida
Lisa continued: ‘And she did it. She bought the ugliest dress she could find because she just wanted to be like a princess. She didn’t win a thing.
‘But she was hooked.’
She began volunteering with the Ronald McDonald House as she continued competing in pageants, and went on to raise over $25,000 for the charity, Lisa said.
Kadance carried on her charity work with her own organization, Kada’s Promise, which provided teddy bears and blankets to children in foster care, homeless and abuse shelters, and hospitals.
On her Kada’s Promise website, she wrote: ‘During many dark times in my early childhood, the only thing that I could call my own or that made me feel safe was a single teddy bear that I received as a gift.
‘I carried him with me from house to house, couch to couch and clutched him tightly in the scariest times. It is from these memories that Kada’s Promise was born.’
Lisa described her adoptive daughter as ‘the most kindhearted’ and ‘generous’ person who ‘only wanted everybody to be happy.’
She said her daughter had been accepted to nine colleges and had dreams of becoming a veterinarian.
Just a day before the crash that took her life, Kadance was awarded a full-ride presidential scholarship at Mississippi State University, and in her final Instagram post she celebrated receiving the Ellison McCraney Ingram Foundation’s $40,000 scholarship to help her go to college.
Helping hand: The 18-year-old previously made headlines in 2017 when she created Kada’s Promise, a charity initiative that provided teddy bears and blankets to children in foster care, homeless and abuse shelters, and hospitals
Success: A former winner of Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA, Fredericksen competed in beauty pageants at numerous levels, including being named Little Miss Northwest Florida in 2017
Her grieving family said they hope to continue Kadance’s legacy and are asking people to bring teddy bears to her funeral to help the Kada’s Promise organization, with a GoFundMe set up to help the initiative after her death.
‘We want the whole world to know who Kadance is,’ Lisa said. ‘We want to continue touching as many lives as we can, even though she’s not here.’
Speaking of her charity work in 2024, Kadance told WCJB: ‘When I was little, I was abused and neglected by my biological mother and stepfather.
‘During those times, the only thing I had to call my own was a stuffed animal I received as a gift years beforehand.
‘Now that I’m in a safe home with a safe family, I learned I wasn’t the only kid that went through that.’
Overcoming the odds: Kadance said her charity work was motivated by overcoming being ‘abused and neglected’ as a child
Caring personality: Kadance was known for her charity work with disadvantaged children, seen with teddy bears given to them through her initiative ‘Kada’s Promise’
The Miss Teen USA competition, which Kadance competed in as a former winner of Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA, led tributes for the young talent following news of her passing.
‘Our pageant community has lost a beautiful soul — one who was a true light in this world. She was ambitious, driven, kind, and a leader among her pageant sisters,’ the organization said in a statement.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and all who are mourning this devastating loss.
‘May we honor her memory by carrying forward the light she so effortlessly shared with the world and our Florida pageant community.’
Fredericksen was a senior at Baker School, and following the announcement of her passing the school paid tribute to the talented teenager.
‘Please keep the family, the town, and the school in your thoughts as they will all miss and grieve this young lady,’ the school said.
