The friends of an American newlywed who died in a car crash while going out to look at the stars during his New Zealand honeymoon have set up a fundraising page for his grieving wife.
“Tragically, our friend, teammate, son, brother, and newlywed Doug Dietz was taken from us too soon this week,” the page reads.
Dietz was killed on Sept. 29 in Martinborough. Police said the 29-year-old left his hotel around 8 or 9 p.m. to look at the stars, driving along a gravel road that locals described as dangerous and narrow, the New Zealand Herald reports.
His wife, Kathleen, reported him missing after he did not come home by 3 a.m. Later that morning, the couple’s rental car was found crashed in a ditch. Dietz was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, investigators said.
"I wouldn't want anybody to have this happen to them, but to be a visitor, and a visitor on their honeymoon, it makes it even worse,” South Wairarapa Mayor Adrienne Staples told the newspaper.
Diitz had just started a new job in Washington, D.C., and he and his wife were settling in to a new house they bought earlier this year in Alexandria, Va., the GoFundMe page says.
The page also states that Dietz played on a Congressional Softball League team, and that the team would change its name from the Southern Aces to Doug’s Southern Aces.
The U.S. embassy reached out to relatives, a spokeswoman told the New Zealand Herald.
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