Chelsea McCavit wiped tears from her eyes Tuesday night, remembering the last time she saw her roommate and best friend.

Clare McCormick, a 19-year-old elementary education and child development sophomore from Alpena, was hit by a car walking on Chandler Road early Saturday morning. She died the next day.

“We all saw her that night,” McCavit said. “We talked to her, but she was unconscious.”

A group of McCormick’s friends rushed to the hospital when they received a message on their answering machine from an aunt about the accident. They said they never expected her condition to be that serious.

“I didn’t think anything was wrong,” McCavit said. “We expected a broken arm or something.”

McCormick’s friends were able to see her once. When the group learned of her death, human biology sophomore Jennifer Tomaszczyk said they dropped to the floor, sobbing.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Tomaszczyk said. “We’re all still in shock, and I don’t think I quite understand yet.”

McCormick and 19-year old Ashlee Nichols were walking on Chandler Road in Bath Township when a southbound car hit the pair at 5:05 a.m. Saturday, Bath Township police said. McCavit said the two were visiting friends who lived in apartments in East Lansing’s Northern Tier.

Nichols, a California resident, was visiting friends for the weekend and is expected to make a full recovery, police said. She was still being treated Tuesday at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital.

Police say the two pedestrians had been drinking when a car driven by 21-year-old Kimberly Hostetler hit them. Hostetler, an English sophomore, was treated and released from Sparrow.

But the girls said McCormick could not have been drunk when she was hit. McCavit said McCormick had about four beers at 10 p.m. and hadn’t had another drink all night. Police did not release details about the accident or the women’s blood-alcohol levels, citing an ongoing investigation.

“We talked to Ashlee in the hospital, and she said they hadn’t had anything to drink,” McCavit said.

McCormick called Stephanie Gordon, a pre-veterinary sophomore, at 1:25 a.m. from a party on Stoddard Street and said the two were having a good time. That was the last her friends heard from her.

Shaw Hall 3-West resident mentor Maura Less held a floor meeting to tell her floor about the accident and to answer any questions they had. McCormick lived on that floor.

“It was pretty much just general surprise from the girls,” Less said. “When they heard about it at the meeting, they were just really quiet. They were all like, ‘Why is it the good people?’

“We’re just concerned about Chelsea, because it’s going to be really hard for her.”

Child development sophomore Carrie Linenger was in a journalism class with McCormick this fall, but they first met last year when McCormick lived in Mason Hall.

“She would just walk into class and have a smile on her face,” Linenger said.

Like others, Linenger said she was in shock when she heard about her friend’s death.

“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, are they OK?’ and it never crossed my mind she’d say, ‘No,’” she said. “People get in accidents all the time and get bumped and bruised.”

A group of friends gathered in McCormick’s former Shaw Hall room Tuesday night to cry, laugh and remember their friend.

“We were the freshman lot,” Tomaszczyk said. “The first night there were like seven girls on the floor.”

And though all the girls said McCormick was reserved when they first met her, she opened up immediately.

“She’s so funny,” Tomaszczyk said, laughing. “She could say the meanest thing to you and you’d just laugh.”

“Yeah, she’ll let you know exactly what she’s thinking,” Gordon added.

McCormick loved to laugh, was addicted to watching “Dawson’s Creek” and dating shows and was always smiling, her friends said.

The only time she would not be smiling would be in the morning, McCavit said.

“In the morning when she turned on the light, I’d start singing to her,” McCavit said with a laugh. “She’s so grumpy in the morning, and it’s fun to make her mad.”

Dietetics junior Lysandra Porritt said she remembers McCormick having a lot of crushes.

“And the boys who fell for Clare fell hard,” added dietetics sophomore Kristen Shannon.

Shannon, McCavit and Gordon signed a lease for an apartment with McCormick. They say they haven’t really realized that they just lost one of their roommates.

“We’ve always been together,” McCavit said, adding that she hasn’t even moved her roommate’s clothes from where they were strewn before she left Friday night.

The only clue that McCormick isn’t still there is the plain green mattress with a packed box on it - and McCavit said the hardest part will be packing her friend’s belongings.

“She’s like my sister,” McCavit said with a trembling voice.

Family will receive friends from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, 2-8 p.m. Friday at A.J. Desmond & Sons’ Vasu, Rodgers & Connell Chapel, 32515 Woodward Ave. in Detroit. Visitation will be held from 10 a.m. Saturday until a 10:30 a.m. funeral mass at St. Peter and St. Paul Church, 7685 Grandville Ave. in Detroit.

She is survived by her parents, Peter and Karen McCormick, and three sisters.

Staff writers Amy Bartner and Kendra Snyder contributed to the report.

Elissa Englund can be reached at englunde@msu.edu.