DAVIS —
Friday night the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine held a celebration of life for a student who was killed in an apparent murder-suicide.
Whitney Engler was found shot and killed at her west Davis duplex last week.
Her roommate, 23-year-old Joseph Hein, is who police believe pulled the trigger, before turning the gun on himself.
At the school they spent so much time together, friends and family of 27-year-old Engler gather to remember their favorite stories.
“After four years of going to school, you get to know people better than your own family. In many ways, and you become family,” Sean Owens, Associate Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine told FOX40. “Whitney would blow in like a tornado and sit down on my couch and then point a finger at me and say you know, you’re doing this right or you’re doing this wrong, and I expect results. More often then not she was right.”
But despite their loss, Owens believes his students have still gained something from Whitney’s tragedy.
“Gifts of appreciating the people who are still behind and what life really means to you, and how you spend it, I think those are the gifts that Whitney is going to give to her classmates unknowingly,” Owens said.
Whitney was just six weeks away from graduating veterinary school.
Friends tell FOX40 she already had several job offers.
