UW-Eau Claire lost three of its students this summer who were known for their compassion and drive to help others.

Diana Mueller, Anne O’Brien and Kayla Wayne died in separate incidents during summer break.

Kayla Wayne
Kayla Wayne, who was a freshman special education major, died at her home in rural Menomonie on July 11.

Wayne,19, died in her sleep from what is assumed to have been a sudden heart arrhythmia, said Diane Wayne, her mother. The autopsy showed that her body was free of any alcohol or drugs, she said.

As a high school student in Menomonie, Wayne participated on the basketball and track teams, but what really captured her heart was her love of those with special needs, her mother said.

Wayne volunteered in special education classes in high school and continued to work with many special needs groups and classes in college.

Anne O’Brien
Like Wayne, Anne O’Brien also had a natural tendency to put others ahead of herself, said her father, Jerry O’Brien.

Her father said O’Brien’s willingness to help others was so strong that she often wound up hurting herself in the process.

“Her high school teachers would complain a little bit that she had kind of a following of the kids who didn’t really fit in anywhere, to the point that it might have hurt her a little bit,” he said.

O’Brien, 22, a senior electronic media major from Eau Claire, died Aug. 3 as the result of a hit-and-run accident in rural Jackson County.

According to reports from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, she was found dead in the town of Irving, just south of Black River Falls.

Diana Mueller
Diana Mueller, 21, a senior nursing major from Sun Prairie, died July 2 as the result of a “purposeful drug overdose,” said Kathy Mueller, Diana’s mother.

Her mother attributed Mueller’s suicide in part to her coping with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain illness. Mueller dealt with physical pain and severe depression for about the last six to nine months of her life, her mother said.

Mueller also found joy in taking care of others. When she first arrived at Eau Claire she intended to study pharmacology, but later changed her major to nursing to get closer to patients, her mother said.

Mueller also spent many hours abroad in Mexico and Europe on Christian mission trips, doing aid work.

“Diana had a passion for life and for God,” her mother said. “It was so much fun for people to talk with her as she just bubbled with enthusiasm and energy.”

Profiles of Kayla Wayne, Anne O’Brien and Diana Mueller will appear in upcoming issues of The Spectator.