Sacramento crash claims life of Merced woman
A 26-year-old Merced woman whose passion for fitness led her to Sacramento is being mourned by her family and loved ones following a hit-and-run collision that claimed her life.
Elise Eastman died Sunday, two days after being hit by a silver sedan that was pulling out of a driveway in Sacramento. Eastman had been riding her motorcycle home after a quick trip to a nearby gym for a workout, according to her boyfriend, Joel Romo.
“I met her when she was 19 down in her hometown of Merced at a gym,” Romo told The Sacramento Bee in a telephone interview Monday. “We both competed in bodybuilding.”
Romo described Eastman as “the best woman I’ve ever known.” The couple planned to begin house-hunting so they could get married, he said.
Romo said his 30th birthday was Friday and that he was following his Labor Day tradition of heading out for a camping trip when an acquaintance called and told him about the accident.
Eastman, who worked as a personal trainer at two gyms, normally would have been home and in bed by around 9:45 p.m., the approximate time of the crash, Romo said, but she wanted to squeeze in time for a workout for herself.
“She just zipped over there really quick to get a workout,” he said.
Sacramento police spokesman Officer Matthew McPhail said the investigation into the crash was continuing and that no arrests had been made.
The car involved has been described as a late-model sedan, possibly a Honda or Hyundai, which may have been damaged on the driver’s side.
“We’re still encouraging people to come forward,” McPhail said.
Eastman graduated in 2008 from Golden Valley High School, where she often sang the national anthem at school football games and was an accomplished piano player, according to her sister, Muriel Eastman, 24.
One the fondest memories Muriel Eastman said she had of her sister is singing with her as she played the piano, both holding nothing back.
“Her music really touched me the most,” Muriel Eastman said. “Elise was always the strongest leader in our entire family.”
Muriel Eastman said her sister was a bright light in the world and was able to fit a lifetime of accomplishments into 26 years.
The women, who are among six Eastman siblings, are the daughters of Rex and Jane Eastman of Merced.
Eastman’s mother, Jane Eastman, wants to thank the medical team who took care of her daughter at the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Sacramento, and said they made this process slightly more bearable.
“It’s so wonderful to see how Elise touched so many lives,” Jane Eastman said. “She was very driven and, once she set her mind to something, she really just made it happen.”
Danelle Hull, 40, the owner of Fitness Addiction in Merced, recalled that Eastman was the first employee she hired.
Eastman was a “living, breathing example of fitness,” Hull said, adding that Fitness Addiction was lucky to have had her as a trainer for about two years, before Eastman moved to Sacramento.
“She definitely has a very special place in my heart,” Hull said. “The moment I met her, I knew she was a superstar.”
Eastman entered various bodybuilding competitions and, in 2014, she won first-place Overall Figure Champion in San Francisco.
Karly DeFazio, 28, said she talked to Eastman on Friday about how happy she was being a trainer in Sacramento and how she and her boyfriend were looking forward to being married.
“I remember on Friday that’s exactly what we talked about,” DeFazio said. “How happy she was.”
DeFazio, who lives in Sacramento, said she met Eastman because she wanted to be trained by her, and their client-trainer relationship quickly turned into a close friendship.
“That’s the person she was,” DeFazio said. “It was really easy to become friends with her. Everyone who came in contact with her loved her, even people who didn’t know her.”
As a trainer, DeFazio described Eastman as “amazing,” and said training with her brought back all the passion she had in exercising. DeFazio said she made workouts fun and wasn’t the typical “cookie-cutter trainer.”
“She had so many clients she had to turn people away,” DeFazio said. “She loved helping others. I think that’s what drew her to helping people reach their fitness goals.”
The Eastman family said they plan to hold a private funeral service.
Friends have established a Go Fund Me account to help pay for burial services. Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/eliseeastman.
Police ask anyone with information to call the department’s Hit-and-Run Tip line at 916-808-6030, police dispatch at 916-264-5471 or Crime Alert at 916-443-HELP (4357). Anonymous tips also can be submitted using the free “P3 Tips” smartphone app, police said.
This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Sacramento crash claims life of Merced woman."