Vicki Van Meter, who made headlines in the 1990s for piloting a plane across the country at age 11 and from the United States to Europe at age 12, has died, an apparent suicide. She was 26.
Van Meter died Saturday of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Crawford County coroner said. Her body was found in her Meadville, Pa., home on Sunday.
Her brother said that she had battled depression but that her family thought she had been dealing with her problems. "She was unhappy, but it was hard for her to open up about that, and we all thought that she was coping," Daniel Van Meter said. He said she had opposed taking medication.
Van Meter was celebrated in 1993 and 1994 when she made her cross-country and trans-Atlantic flights accompanied only by a flight instructor. Her instructors said she was at the controls during the entirety of both trips.
"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," Van Meter said before her second trip. In her teens, she said she hoped to become an astronaut when she grew up.
Later she earned a degree in criminal justice from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania and spent two years with the Peace Corps in the former Soviet republic of Moldova. She recently worked as an investigator for an insurance company.
Ola Brunkert, a former drummer for the Swedish pop band ABBA, was found dead at his home on the island of Mallorca, Spain. He was 62. Brunkert reportedly hit his head against a glass door in his dining room, shattering the glass and cutting himself in the neck. He collapsed in his garden and was found Sunday.
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