In February 2020, Kaitlyn Eckelberry’s life was all coming together.

Her years of hard work in college and graduate school had paid off, and she had just passed her boards to become a physician’s assistant. She was hired at her dream job in orthopedics, had just signed a lease for a new apartment and was looking forward to building a life together with her boyfriend, Kane Elliot.

As Elliot was driving home the night of Feb. 21, 2020, he was detoured around a crash on Route 8 in Hampton. When he got home, Eckelberry, who had driven the same route an hour earlier, wasn’t there.

He immediately drove back to the blocked roadway and learned that a young woman from Ohio had been killed. It was her.

“You took away the only thing I wanted in this world,” Elliot said Tuesday during the sentencing of Madisyn Nicole O’Connor, 25, of Butler. “Your actions have turned love into heartbreak.”

Elliot was one of several loved ones to testify during the sentencing of O’Connor, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and related charges.

As part of a plea agreement, she will serve 2 to 5 years in state prison — with no opportunity to participate in any boot camp or drug program that could reduce that time.

O’Connor also will serve three years of probation.

Assistant District Attorney Stephen Sliger told the court that O’Connor was driving north on Route 8 just before midnight when her SUV crossed the center line and crashed head-on into Eckelberry’s southbound car.

Eckelberry, 23, of Canton, Ohio, was trapped inside and pronounced dead at 12:03 a.m.

O’Connor, who had to be cut from her vehicle, had marijuana in her system and a blood-alcohol content of 0.257% — more than three times the legal limit for driving.

During a heart-rending sentencing hearing before a packed courtroom, Eckelberry’s loved ones told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer about their loss.

They described Eckelberry, a lifelong athlete who was coaching softball at Chatham University, as kind, giving, passionate and bubbly. They said she had a positive impact on everyone she met.

Gannon University Mourns The Loss Of Kaitlyn Eckelberry https://t.co/AFVplEa3bY

— Gannon Athletics (@GUKnights) February 23, 2020

Her mom, Lori Eckelberry, began her victim impact statement by speaking directly to O’Connor and her parents.

“If you just would have taught her not to get in a car and drink and drive, this whole tragedy could have been avoided,” she said. “Madisyn, it has taken you 635 days to acknowledge that you killed my daughter.

“That was the last day I was truly whole.”

Lori Eckelberry described all of the things her family has lost through her daughter’s death, displaying Kaitlyn’s new, white lab coat for her work as a physician assistant.

“She never got to wear that because of you,” she said. “You took away my life. You took away my world. You took away my love.

“You will have a short sentence, but ours will go on forever.”

Kaitlyn’s two sisters said their family has been thrust into a never-ending cycle of pain and grief.

“Why should Katie have to pay with her life for the wrongs that you did?” asked Kristina Eckelberry. “Do you know how many people she was going to help in her career?

“Do you know I think about what Katie’s last thoughts were when you killed her? I pray when she took her last breath, she wasn’t scared or suffering.”

She continued: “Today, I decided to forgive you — not because you’ve apologized for your actions. But because our souls deserve peace.”

Kortney Eckelberry said she is still working on forgiveness, but that she wants O’Connor to understand who their sister was.

“We want you to see her how we see her,” she said.

O’Connor spoke briefly, reading from a pink notebook. She apologized to the Eckelberry family and said she knows that her words cannot take away what she did. She also said that she has been taking steps to improve herself.

“I want to teach others about irresponsible drinking and drinking and driving,” she said.

Beemer said that in all his years in the criminal justice system, he’d never seen a victim have the kind of impact that Kaitlyn Eckelberry did. He urged O’Connor to recognize it and learn from it.

“How does a 23-year-old like this girl affect people the way that she did?” he asked. “Letter after letter after letter. You should take them with you, and you should read them everyday. There are people who live 70, 80, 90 years and don’t come close to the impact that this young lady had.”

“You have an obligation and a responsibility … to live your life from this day forward, every single day, in honor of her and respectful of the absolute tragedy you perpetrated on the world in taking her away,” Beemer said.

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