Mara Fox

A graveside 19th birthday;
Mom works to prevent future deaths

The Washington Times July 25, 1994, Monday, Final Edition

BYLINE: Adrienne T. Washington; THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Today is Mara Rose Fox's birthday.

But instead of showering their bright, bubbly, 19-year-old daughter with trinkets and red roses, Mara's parents will be placing flowers on her grave in Arlington National Cemetery.

The blossoming young Fairfax coed would have been entering her second year as an honors student at the University of Notre Dame this fall. But a hit-and-run driver eight months ago brought an abrupt end to Mara's life and what appeared to be a promising future.

Instead of wallowing in her grief, her mother, Teresa McCarthy of Vienna, is getting MADD: Predictably, she joined Mothers Against Drunk Driving after Mara's death.

She and Mara's father, retired Air Force Col. Charles Fox of Oakton, placed a highway sign in Mara's memory on the spot in South Bend, Ind., where she was killed Nov. 13, hoping that the sign would "save one life."

And Mrs. McCarthy is pushing officials at Notre Dame for some answers.

Mara suffered massive head injuries after she was hit and thrown by a car that swerved off the road as she and four friends walked to campus from a delicatessen shortly after midnight.

John George Rita of Springfield, just across Fairfax County from Mara's home, is the Notre Dame law student charged in the death. He faces two felony counts: causing a death while driving intoxicated and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. His trial, postponed twice, has been rescheduled for late October.

According to numerous newspaper and television reports Mrs. McCarthy has collected since Mara's death, Mr. Rita, who was 24 at the time, went back to his apartment after the accident and went to sleep.

His companions reportedly called police 90 minutes later to report the crash, and initial reports said he admitted hitting something. When police woke Mr. Rita three hours after the crash, the reports say, his blood-alcohol content was 0.14 percent, above Indiana's limit of 0.10.

Mr. Rita could not be reached for comment. "The fact that he left her is what I can't deal with," Mrs. McCarthy says. "You stop for a dog."

Mara's parents are also upset that Mr. Rita was allowed to graduate from Notre Dame's law school with his classmates May 15 - one day before his trial was originally set to begin. > Mrs. McCarthy points to Notre Dame's handbook, which says the school "reserves the right to summarily suspend any student charged with a felony during the pendency of his/her criminal proceeding."

Why, Mrs. McCarthy wants to know, did Notre Dame allow Mr. Rita to graduate?

She also points to the role of Notre Dame's president, the Rev. Edward Malloy, as chairman of the Commission on Substance Abuse at Colleges and Universities. In a report last month, the panel expressed concern over the "epidemic" of alcohol abuse and binge drinking on campuses, saying it has "devastating consequences" and is not "simply a part of the rites of passage" but "is unhealthy and . . . contra-educational."

"It's sheer hypocrisy that Reverend Malloy chairs a national committee but then he can't clean up his own back yard," Mrs. McCarthy says.

She wants university officials to take steps that she believes could keep others from suffering her daughter's fate. For starters, suspending Mr. Rita would have set a good example in keeping with Father Malloy's comments, she says.

"He is setting an example with no example," she says. "You have to let kids know you mean what you say."

Mrs. McCarthy says the school also needs better transit services, particularly for residential freshmen, who are not allowed to have cars at school. Currently, a Weekend Wheels shuttle picks students up from local bars until midnight.

Mrs. McCarthy has asked for help from Virginia Gov. George Allen, who supported stricter laws on drunken drivers, but her letter to him has not been acknowledged.

Col. Fox can't even discuss his youngest daughter's death or the circumstances surrounding it. Understandably, Mrs. McCarthy is frustrated.

"I sent a beautiful, healthy 18-year-old girl to them, and they sent her back to us in a box," she says.

Mara Fox graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average from Oakton High School and was a top student in the freshman psychology class at Notre Dame.

"She loved to sing and dance, and she was always happy," says her Notre Dame roommate, Jennifer Ramirez, who was with Mara when she was hit.

The 18-year-old West Virginia native stays in constant contact with Mrs. McCarthy and was visiting her last week on the eve of Mara's birthday.

Mara dreamed of becoming a child psychiatrist and someday using her proficiency in Spanish to work in a Latin American country, her mother says.

Though fighting mad at the Fighting Irish, Mrs. McCarthy appears to be handling the death of her youngest child well.

She takes what little comfort she can from her two older daughters and her grandchildren and from her work with Northern Virginia MADD.

"Nothing can bring my daughter back, but there has got to be some good that can come of this," she says.

"Drunk driving is the only type of murder we excuse as an accident," she says. This accident kept Mara from celebrating her 19th birthday.

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