Pro wrestling legend Dutch Mantell sent the following letter to Prowrestling.net.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the wrestling fans in the world including Puerto Rico, the UK, Canada, Mexico and Japan for their gracious and heartfelt condolences to me and my family over the recent passing of our beautiful 16 year old granddaughter, Amelia. God took her from us in an horrific car crash on Aug. 14th, in Tennessee when she was hit head on at a high rate of speed by a man who was eluding police capture.

The man ended up being a drugged up ex convict who was on parole who was being pursued by a Tennessee Highway Patrolman. Before the police could stop him, he suddenly crossed the center line of the highway road and crashed head-on into my Amelia. Police estimated the car was traveling in excess of 70 mph when he slammed head on into Amelia's car. She had just left her high school and was on her way home when the crash occurred. Amelia was killed on impact. Her funeral was held on Aug. 16th with over 1,000 people paying their respects to her and the family. Amelia touched a lot of hearts in a short amount of time and was loved by all.

Amelia was a beautiful young lady, an honor student in her junior year in high school, a member of an award winning high school dance team and was planning on becoming a nurse after graduation by attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She was the ANGEL of our family and we will miss her terribly. Words cannot describe the pain that my family has endured since the loss of our beloved Amelia. 

On behalf of my daughter Amanda, my wife Cathy and myself, we sincerely appreciate the outpouring of emails, texts and FACEBOOK messages that were sent by both wresters and fans in our time of grief. We will always remember the kind words and the prayers that were sent to us and for that, we will be eternally grateful.  
 
We will be starting an Amelia Keown Memorial Fund in an attempt to change the laws in Tennessee that allowed such a dangerous and reckless felon to still roam the streets... The man that hit our Amelia had an arrest and prison record that was nine pages long and that was just in Tennessee. If the laws had been upheld as they should have been, the man who killed my Amelia would have still been in jail where he belonged and she would still be here with us. To all the people who supported and stood with us in mourning, we thank you.

WE LOVE YOU AMELIA.
 
Wayne Keown
aka Dirty Dutch Mantell

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