Mourners bid farewell to Bella Trezza, teen killed in Babylon crash

Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday at a West Babylon church for the funeral mass for Bella Trezza, 17, a Babylon high school student who died of her injuries after a Sept. 21 car crash that killed two others and seriously injured three.

Before the packed pews of Our Lady of Grace Church, Father David Atanasio recalled a girl who was sassy and stubborn, and who, in biweekly visits to his office over coffee and Cheetos that began her freshman year at West Islip’s St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School, had "dedicated herself to finding and desiring peace."

Bella, he said, had "sought out the help of people she knew she could trust ... That girl had a lot of courage."

The girl he remembered had "joy that exuded from her" and was a friend to many of the young people who gathered at the church, he said.

Theresa Restivo, a relative of Bella, said: "She was like a little rock star. She’s the daughter that everybody, if you had a daughter, that’s what you would want her to be. She shined in every way possible."

Bella was driving home after picking up her brother and friends from a party on the morning of Sept. 25. At around 1 a.m., the 2025 Kia Seltos SUV she was driving was struck by a 2017 Kia sedan that failed to stop at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Great East Neck Road in West Babylon, police have said.

The sedan's driver, Michael Desmond, 33, of Lindenhurst, and a passenger in the Seltos, Riley Goot, a recent graduate of West Babylon High School, both died in the crash. Goot's funeral was held last week at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Babylon.

Bella's brother, Austin, 18, also a recent West Babylon High graduate, was taken to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip with multiple injuries after the crash. He is a West Babylon volunteer firefighter, and was pulled from the wreckage by his fellow firefighters, the fire department has said.

Newsday reported last week that he was headed toward recovery after undergoing multiple surgeries.

On Friday a Suffolk police spokeswoman said she had no new information about the condition of those injured in the crash. A Good Samaritan Hospital spokesman did not return a voicemail.

Bella's family donated her organs while she was hospitalized at Good Samaritan, said Leonard Achan, president of LiveOnNY, the Long Island City-based nonprofit that matches donors with the federal organ transplant list.

Achan said the decision to donate, which he described as "an act of grace," will save three lives.

At Our Lady of Grace on Friday, pallbearers wheeled Bella's coffin out of the church. Young mourners followed, some wearing shirts bearing their school’s SJB initials, some with their parents.

They stood in the parking lot outside, chatting and weeping, as a convoy of vehicles formed for the trip to St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, where Bella was to be buried.

With Virginia Huie