‘Devastating’: Woman remembered after car plunged into Lake Ontario

A community is mourning the loss of a 25-year-old woman who died after the car she was in plunged into Lake Ontario near Ashbridge’s Bay Park on Sunday night.

Agknesa Soukoulli, originally from Albania, moved to Canada in 2021 to join her sister and pursue her dreams of a better future. In a GoFundMe posted this week by her family, they describe the ‘loss as devastating.’

“Her smile that could light up a room,” her family said in the GoFundMe description.

Soukoulli was studying English and working full-time at a bakery to support her family back home. “Agknesa was helping her parents back in Albania… who are now facing the heartbreaking reality of saying goodbye to someone they loved so much,” the post goes on to say.

On Sunday, Soukoulli was a passenger in a vehicle that entered the water near Lake Shore Boulevard East. Emergency responders pulled her from the submerged car, but she later died in hospital.

Kristian Pasku, organizer of the GoFundMe, said in an interview Wednesday that Soukoulli and the driver now charged had gone out for dinner on the Danforth before the incident occurred.

Her family is now raising funds to bring Soukoulli home to Albania for a proper burial. The GoFundMe campaign has been launched to cover the costs of repatriation while the family grieves their sudden loss.

The driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Kristjan Serraj of Oakville, has been charged with dangerous operation causing death, Police are continuing their investigation and are asking anyone with information to contact them.

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