An SMU graduate missing in Italy since Sunday has been found dead.
Italian investigators said Allison Owens, 23, was killed in a hit-and-run crash while she was jogging near her apartment in the city of San Giovanni Valdarno in central Italy, about 30 miles southeast of Florence.
Friends reported Owens missing after she did not return home Sunday.
Police said Owens, who went by Ally, may have been using an iPod and did not hear the approaching car. Investigators first looked into her disappearance as a possible kidnapping or medical emergency that may have left her unable to call for help.
"She was the most wonderful person you could possibly meet. She loved life and she loved her friends. And she's not replaceable," said Kimberly Carlson, Owens' former roommate and Tri-Delta sorority sister at SMU.
Friends said after graduating from SMU in May 2010 with a bachelors degree in Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, she moved abroad to work as a tour guide in different countries.
Both Owens and her boyfriend worked for Backroads, a company that led hiking and biking tours. They were supposed to meet up in Milan earlier this week, but, of course, Owens never made it.
Before relocating to Italy, she had worked in Switzerland, according to a friend.
Owens is the granddaughter of Jerry Owens, the late creator of Owens Country Sausage in Richardson. She is survived by her mother, who has left for Italy to identify her daughter, and her brother Kyle, a sophomore at SMU.
There has been an outpouring of support for the Owens family, including superstar Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen's daughter is friends with Kyle and has reportedly offered to help the family in any way possible.
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