Crash victim remembered for kindness

NEWMARKET — Gardening, the outdoors and documentaries were a few of Jasmine Marston's favorite things. 

Marston, 22, of Newmarket, lost her life in a serious rollover crash just after midnight on Saturday morning on Middle Road in Brentwood. She was the front passenger in an Audi A4 when it lost control, struck a tree and rolled over on the lawn of 66 Middle Road. Marston was pronounced dead at the scene, while two men from Exeter, the driver and rear passenger, were transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital with injuries. State police said they are looking at speed as a factor, but all aspects remain under investigation. 

Marston was born in Colorado and raised in Brentwood. She attended Cooperative Middle School in Stratham, and graduated from Great Bay eLearning Charter School in Exeter in 2013. At the time of her death, she was working as a gardener at The Meandering Path and another job at Las Olas Taqueria. On Saturday, Las Olas Taqueria closed to honor Marston and allow the staff to be together. 

Friends remembered Marston for her infectious laugh, independent demeanor and outspokenness. Marston had just moved to Newmarket this past year and was living with friends and coworkers Emma Stone and Alisha Levasseur, both originally of Exeter.

"She was spunky, very straightforward and honest," Stone said. Stone said Marston loved rap and hip hop music, specifically Notorious B.I.G and Tupac. Her young nephew "was her whole life," and she would attend all of his basketball, soccer and tee ball games. 

"Her beautiful laugh, her smile, her little lisp," Levasseur recalled. "You didn't even have to say anything to her and she knew what you were thinking."

Stone said Marston loved jumping off the bridge at Wiswall Dam and taking out tubes to float in the Lamprey River. Marston loved the outdoors, and spending time with friends. 

"She loved going up north to North Conway, she loved it up there," said friend Meghan McPartland. "The Kancamagus Highway, we took random trips there all the time. She always loved to be swimming, too."

In addition to her passion for gardening, friends said Marston was focused on her future, looking to take licensed nursing assistant classes in the fall.

"She had a passion for kids in need, special needs children," Stone said. "She wanted to have like five babies, and then she would offer to have yours for you. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that was so down to earth. So 'in your face' but at the same time, so loving. I’ve never met anyone cooler. Someone you want to be friends with, aspire to be like. We became such best friends."

Melanie MacDonald said she met Marston when they were 13.

"Since that day I just quite literally have never had more of a best friend," MacDonald said. "I feel like one half of me is dead because that half was her."

MacDonald said she and Marston were passionate about animals not being used for entertainment, and they spent two summers traveling to protest the Ringling Brothers Circus.

"We went to North Carolina and DC, we followed them and peacefully protested until we couldn’t anymore," she said. "The day they shut down we had a celebration. She was mine, she was my best friend."

 Stone's mother, Suzanne Bokat Stone, employed Marston at the Meandering Path. 

"The thing that strikes me most is that minute I met her, I loved her," Bokat Stone said. "I just thought she was open, friendly and well-spoken, beautiful, attentive. She was such a hard worker, a great employee, one of the best." 

Bokat Stone said when Marston began working for her, the first plant name she learned was hydrangea.

"I said, 'How do you remember that one?' And she said, 'It's my favorite,'" Bokat Stone said. 

Stone and Levasseur said they had plans last weekend to go to Cape Cod with Marston. They called her several times the night of theaccidentand she didn't answer. 

"We got a text saying there was an accident," Stone said. "Some of us went to the hospital, some of us went to the scene. We were at the hospital forever. They wouldn’t tell us where she was. We kind of had a feeling. We’ve had a lot of friends pass away, we’ve had a hard time over the last several years. But this one hits home the most."

A GoFundMe page set up by Marston's sister seeking assistance with funeral expenses had already raised over $11,000 by Monday morning. 

Marston was a major advocate for seat belt safety and not drinking and driving. In 2012, she directed aseat belt awareness filmthat is still being used as an educational tool. 

"It’s just heartbreaking, that’s the only word I keep repeating," Bokat Stone said. "I just can’t explain it any other way."

"From the get-go she just always had something to say," Levasseur said. "She was one of my first role models. She would always stand up for people. She always wanted to be somebody’s savior."

Visiting hours will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 21 at the Remick & Gendron Funeral Home-Crematory, 811 Lafayette Road in Hampton. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in the funeral home. Burial will follow in the Hillside Cemetery, Seabrook. In lieu of flowers, visitgofundme.com/furneral-funds-for-jasmine-rose-mar contribute to the Jasmine R. Marston Scholarship Fund at the Great Bay Charter School, 30 Linden St., Exeter, NH 03833.