Suicide? Why did Kadance Fredericksen teen beauty pageant winner veer her car into oncoming traffic just three minutes before home, leading to her death?
A report has revealed that a Miss Teen USA pageant queen winner who was killed in a head on collision earlier this week did so after veering her car into oncoming traffic. Investigators are now seeking to understand what might have led to the 18 year old driving directly in to the path of a tractor trailer, including the possibility of suicide.
Kadance Fredericksen, 18, passed away on Monday when she crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer, just ‘three minutes from home’, her mother revealed.
The crash occurred just on 1:30pm along Highway 4 near Hurricane Lake Road in Milton, Florida some three minutes from the beauty queen’s family home.
‘I have no idea what happened,’ Kadance’s mother, Lisa Fredericksen, 48, told People. The parent told the outlet she wasn’t home at the time, and only learned about the tragedy after police told her oldest daughter about the crash.
Perhaps most ironically, Kadance Fredericksen’s death follows her overcoming abuse and homelessness as a young child at the hands of her biological mother, before being taken in by her father and adoptive mother.
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.
Her stepmom, Lisa 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.
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.’
Kadance Frederickson 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 ‘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, 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.
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.’
The Miss Teen USA competition, which Kadance competed in as a former winner of Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA, led tributes for the beauty pageant winner 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.
Investigators have yet to say whether Kadance Frederickse’s death was the result of suicide or driving error or the result of a car malfunction. But if the 18 year old did take her own life, the question remains why would a much adored young woman, who overcome abuse and homelessness and had so much to live for, take her own life?
