This photo collage shows friends and sorority sisters of Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams. Bridget Thompson said the girls would spend every moment they could surrounded by each other. Photos courtesy of Bridget Thompson, Charlie Robinson and Georgia Puckett
Editor’s Note: The Graphic chose to refer to Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams as girls. While they all were over the age of 18, the Graphic chose to use the term girls because “our girls” is how the community has lovingly referred to them.
We are mosaics, made up of pieces of everyone we’ve ever loved. Although gone, the beauty they left behind lives on through every heart our four girls touched.
This is what friends of Asha Weir, Deslyn Williams, Niamh Rolston and Peyton Stewart have said about these four girls after their lives were tragically taken due to a high-speed collision on Pacific Coast Highway on Oct.17, 2023.
Although taken by the tragedy, their presence is alive and active through the loved ones they left behind. Alumna Georgia Puckett (’25) was a sorority sister and close friend to the four girls and said there isn’t a day that goes by where she doesn’t feel their impact.
“I’m just so grateful I had the years that I did with them,” Puckett said. “Because they changed my life in so many ways that they’ll never know, but they changed my life for the better.”
Our Four Lights
Alumna Bridget Thompson (’24) was the roommate and best friend to Asha, Niamh and Peyton. Throughout their time as sorority sisters and best friends, Thompson said all four girls were the greatest people she ever had the pleasure of knowing.
“We shared such an amazing bond,” Thompson said. “They were truly the best people I ever met and I don’t think that I’ll ever find another bond like that — like they were literally angels on earth.”
Alumna Charlie Robinson (’25) was Peyton’s sorority little, and the moment Puckett introduced Robinson to Peyton, Robinson said they were practically inseparable.
“She had this really contagious fullness of being,” Robinson said. “She was always very present and excited to be wherever she was.”
During Puckett’s adventures abroad, she said she left her program in Switzerland to meet with Asha and Peyton in London.
“It’s my favorite memory I have of both her and Peyton,” Puckett said. “It was just such a fun day being in a different country with them, and catching up about how different our lives were becoming.”
(left to right) Charlie Robinson, Georgia Puckett, Deslyn, Maddy Garcia and Peyton pose at an Alpha Phi event Sep 16, 2023. Hannah Allen said all four girls were an intricate part of Alpha Phi. Photo courtesy of Charlie Robinson
Puckett is now preparing to pursue her masters degree in London, where she said she is living out Asha’s dream.
“I know that Asha wanted to go to London after graduating from Pepperdine,” Puckett said. “So now London just holds such a special place in my heart, because it just feels to me that it was her city.”
Alumna Hannah Allen (’25) was the best friend of Deslyn. Allen said the duo would joke that they were an old married couple because they were constantly together and would plan out their lives with each other.
“We just hung out all the time, and we just got closer and closer,” Allen said. “And I remember one day we were like wow, like we just got close so fast, we’re gonna be best friends, and we did.”
Puckett said Niamh was the sunlight in every room.
“She was just so kind and it was infectious,” Puckett said. “You wanted to be like her because she was just pure light and just pure goodness.”
Niamh and Thompson pose together at Alpha Phi initiation Nov. 14, 2021. Thompson said sometimes her and Niamh would go to each others classes because they didn’t want to be apart. Photo courtesy of Bridget Thompson
In the Quiet Moments
In every moment, the girls are living through the ones that they loved.
When the sun’s rays shimmer in the sky, Puckett said she knows Niamh is with her. When a Taylor Swift song plays on the radio, Puckett knows Asha is with her. When Georgia looks down at Deslyn’s necklace she wears, she knows Deslyn is with her. When Puckett watches Robinson drink her tea, she knows Peyton is with her.
“I see them everywhere I go, and I don’t think there’s going to be a time that stops, because they’ve just become a part of me,” Puckett said.
Thompson said when she is sitting in hardships, she feels her four best friends holding her up.
“It’s in the hardest moments that I really see them,” Thompson said. “Because I remind myself that they are what keeps me going.”
On Deslyn’s 23rd birthday, Puckett said she and Robinson went to drop flowers off at Deslyn’s lightpost on the Four Lights Memorial on main campus. The two were talking until a first-year Puckett had never seen before came up and asked them about Deslyn.
“She was telling Charlie and I that she couldn’t imagine what it must feel like, but she just wanted to offer her love and support to us,” Puckett said. “Then she gave me this hug, and she just felt like she was radiating all that love and all that warmth that all of the four angels did.”
Deslyn’s and Asha’s lightposts covered in flowers after the one year memorial service on main campus Oct. 17. Puckett said she would visit the four lights frequently when she wanted to feel near the girls. Photo courtesy of Georgia Puckett
When Allen first moved into her new apartment in New York City, she said she saw a Jo Malone perfume bottle sitting on the counter and realized it was Deslyn’s signature scent.
“She’s like an angel over me and like, when things happen, I do believe it’s her somehow,” Allen said.
Deslyn and Allen pose together April 10, 2022. Allen said that when she is anywhere beautiful, Deslyn is always the first thought that comes to mind. Photo courtesy of Hannah Allen
The Hope’s For The Trial
The next phase of the legal proceedings for the PCH crash is sent to begin Friday, Sept. 5 where Fraser Michael Bohm will stand trail for four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, according to the Pepperdine Graphic.
With an incredible loss, Robinson said she is attempting to lend forgiveness to Bohm although it feels like an unimaginable feat. Robinson feels he will be shown justice even if he walks free.
“Even if we don’t see him go to jail he has to wake up every morning and look in the mirror and say ‘I killed four people,’” Robinson said. “And that is a burden that is incredibly heavy to bear.”
Puckett said the best friends and family members of the four girls are preparing for the trials the best they know how, and they are hoping justice prevails.
“Nothing will ever bring them back,” Puckett said. “But there is something to be done about taking accountability for the actions that had happened on that night.”
At the core of the court process, Thompson said she hopes the girls’ light will forever shine through and that they are remembered for who they were, not what happened to them.
“The fact that they were beautiful young women with such bright futures ahead of them,” Thompson said. “It’s really important to me to keep that at the forefront.”
Puckett said her greatest hope is that the girls’ stories live on through the people that surrounded them.
“They deserve to tell and live their stories themselves, and the fact that they’re not able to,” Puckett said. “But we have the ability and drive to do it for them and I think it’s just living every day for them and living to keep their memory alive.”
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Contact Haylie Ross via email: haylie.ross@pepperdine.edu
