FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Michelle Bowman, who lost her life Sunday evening in a motorcycle accident, was loved by her family and the local biker community.

“She was my world,” her mother, Sara Kimmel, said Monday afternoon. “She was my sunshine. She had the most loving, outgoing personality, the biggest smile.”

Numb and in shock over the turn of events, Kimmel said she didn’t know her daughter was in the hospital until she noticed she had a phone call from a relative.

Now she’s trying to find out the details of the accident that occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Schwartz Road where it connects with Notestine Road.

  • Michelle Bowman, a ‘sister in the wind’
  • Bowman and her mother, Sara Kimmel
  • Bowman and her two brothers

“There’s been so many conflicting stories. She was riding and doing good. She put her foot down and lost control of the bike and left the road,” Kimmel said others in her daughter’s riding group told her.

Allen County Sheriff’s investigators said Bowman was ejected while the bike continued down the road until it stopped.

The Allen County Coroner confirmed Bowman’s identity Tuesday and determined she died of multiple blunt force injuries. The crash was ruled an accident.

Just after the accident, Kimmel, a retired nurse, said her daughter “was talking, and became unconscious in the EMS. She had a pulse the whole way in, but when she got to the hospital she didn’t have a pulse anymore.”

Now Kimmel and the rest of the family are making funeral arrangements for the 51-year-old nursing student who left behind two children, two brothers and many more friends and family.

Billy Whetsel, Jr., a supporter of the Outlaws, a biker group, said Kimmel was a big ray of sunshine, someone who was never angry.

“She lights up the room when she walks in,”  Whetsel said Monday.

Wheels N Wind, a community biker group, announced there will be a memorial ride for Bowman in the future.

“The world lost an amazing person yesterday,” the post by Wheels N Wind reads. “Michelle Bowman you were loved and will be missed by so many people! You always had a smile on your face and you always brought joy to everyone around you. It hurts to let go of a sister in the wind but we know you’re still riding hard and riding free just in a different place now. Until we meet again.”