Fiancé of wedding bus crash victim posts heartbreaking photo of his wife-to-be whose body has yet to be recovered from the wreckage
- Sam Howard posted a sad tribute to his fiancee Bec Mullen
- Bec Mullen is one of ten people killed in the Hunter Valley bus crash
- Friends have posted heartfelt messages to the grieving man
A heartbroken fiancée has posted a sad tribute to his wife-to-be whose body has yet to be recovered after the Hunter Valley bus crash.
Sam Howard, a footy teammate of groom Mitchell Gaffney, shared a photo of himself with Bec Mullen at night as hopes for her faded as a list of the names of the wedding guests believed to have died in the crash emerged .
Hundreds of well wishers and friends left messages for the grieving Hunter Valley man saying ‘thinking of you Sam’ and ‘I’m so sorry for your loss, my thoughts are with you and all of Bec’s family’.
Ms Mullen, in her mid-twenties, was headmaster of Hunter Valley Grammar School in 2015 and engaged to Mr Howard, a financial planner at Century Private Wealth.
Financial adviser Sam Howard’s sad tribute to his fiancée Bec Mullen, a victim of the Hunter Valley bus crash, whose body has yet to be found but is named by police as one of 10 killed in the tragedy
Bec Mullen and Sam Howard (above left) who were engaged to be married, were guests at the wedding of Mitchell Gaffney, Sam’s footy partner, in Hunter Valley, before the crash that killed Mrs. Mullen
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said on Tuesday that Ms Mullen was a junior doctor at Calvary Matar Newcastle Hospital who had a “long and illustrious” career ahead of her.
“This has made a very dark day even darker for NSW Health,” he said. “We lost one ourselves.”
“On behalf of the NSW community and of course, the Prime Minister and myself extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.”
Mr Howard and Mr Gaffney were both Singleton Roosters AFL members, the same club that Mr Gaffney’s now wife, Madeleine Edsell, also joined after moving from Melbourne to the Hunter region.
It was Mr Gaffney and Mrs Edsell’s wedding that preceded the catastrophic bus crash that killed Mrs Mullen and nine other guests and injured the 25 other passengers on the Ling Buslines Coach rolling just before midnight on Sunday.
It is not known whether Mr. Howard was on the bus with his fiancée.
Mr Howard befriended Mr Gaffney when the latter, a former Warrandyte Bloods AFL player, moved from Victoria to live in the town of Singleton in 2017 with his then fiancé Mrs Edsell.
Bec Mullen was headmaster of Hunter Valley Grammar School and Sam Howard a former student of Singleton High School, both graduated in 2015
Sam Howard is a Singleton Roosters AFL teammate of Mitchell Gaffney (left), whose marriage to Maddy Edsell was followed by the tragic Sunday night bus crash (right) that killed Mr Howard’s fiancée, Bec Mullen
Mr Gaffney broke his jaw playing for the Roosters in 2018 and returned the following year to play alongside Mr Howard.
Mitch Gaffney works at Yancoal’s Hunter Valley Operations as a Coal Quality and Logistics Coordinator and is promoted as he and Mrs. Edsell plan their wedding at Wandin Winery, 18 miles southwest of Singleton.
Mr. Howard graduated from Singleton High School the same year. Mrs. Mullen enrolled and studied finance at Macquarie University.
Bus driver Brett Button was granted bail in Cessnock Local Court on Tuesday after being charged with ten counts of dangerous driving resulting in death – dangerous driving and negligent driving resulting in death.