Krystal Campbell was among the three people killed when bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday, her father told NBC News on Tuesday. That confirmation came as another victim, 8-year-old Martin Richard, was mourned as "a vivacious little kid."
The 29-year-old from the Boston suburbs was at the finish line with her friend Karen Rand to cheer on Rand's boyfriend, who was running, the New York Daily News reported.
"She was a wonderful person. Everyone who knew her loved her. She was a sweet kid and friendly, always smiling. She worked so hard at everything she did," Krystal's mother Patty Campbell told reporters Tuesday from the front porch of the family's home in Medford, Mass.
"She was the best daughter you could ask for. It doesn't make any sense," she said, as she broke down in tears.
"My daughter was the most lovable girl," Krystal's father William Campbell had earlier told Yahoo News. "She helped everybody, and I'm just so shocked right now. We're just devastated."
He called Krystal "a dream" and "the best person you’d ever meet," the Daily News reported.
He told the Daily News that in the confusion just after the bombings, he and his family had at first thought that their daughter had survived and was in surgery — when in fact it was Rand, not Campbell, who was in surgery, he said.
Krystle's grandmother Lillian Campbell told the Boston Globe that her granddaughter, who had grown up in Medford, Mass., had recently left a job managing a seafood restaurant and moved to the nearby town of Arlington for a job managing a steakhouse there.
She went to watch the marathon every year, her grandmother told the Globe.
Krystal Campbell had earlier worked as a fitness coach for the Boston Institute of Football and for the Boston gym Hordon Health, according to the gym.
"She was beautiful, she was loud, and everyone loved her for it," Hordon Health said in a statement on its Facebook page. "She had tremendous passion and energy, and Krystal attacked life with vigor and excitement."
Campbell had graduated from Medford High School in 2001, Inside Medford reported.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Campbell family