A HERO'S FINAL ACT OF LOVE: Ashley Montabello's BF recalls heartbreaking last words of Train Track Angel
REDFERN, SYDNEY: The devastated boyfriend of a fearless woman, who risked her life and leaped into the path of a speeding train to save an elderly man, remembered her as a "beautiful soul" after her tragic death at the age of 33. Ashley Montabello unexpectedly died in February - less than a year after the heroic act, her family friend confirmed in a heart-wrenching social media post.
Montabello earned public praise in April 2022 when she jumped in front of a speeding train to save a 57-year-old man who had collapsed and fallen off the platform at Redfern Station, close to Sydney's central business district. In the harrowing video of the miraculous escape, the commuter and another woman are seen jumping onto the track and trying to save the man as a train screeched toward them. No one was injured during the incident and the elderly man was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital with injuries to his head and wrist.
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'She was too young to go’
Now, Montabello’s long-term partner Tommy Cloos, 60, described her as a "beautiful person who helped everyone in the community." "She was too young to go," he told Daily Mail as he remembered her words to him before she died were "I love you." The pair first met ten years ago, shortly after Montabello, then 23, relocated to Sydney from Cessnock in the Hunter District of New South Wales. "She said she wanted to marry me," Cloos said, adding they had planned to have children in the near future.
Cloos wasn't present the day Montabello saved the 57-year-old at Redfern Station. "She was on the way to Wolli Creek with a friend when she saw him collapse," he said. "That was her instinct - she loved helping people, and she didn't worry about anything. She would give you her left arm if she thought you needed it." Cloos believes Montabello should have been honored for her valor. "She had more balls than grace, and she had more balls than a lot of blokes," he said.
How did Ashley Montabello die?
Cloos revealed Montabello was suffering from drug addiction, which she developed as a coping mechanism to deal with the fact that she was molested as a child. He said she used to vanish frequently while having a relapse but he grew concerned when she went missing in February. "At that time she had wanted people to get her [drugs], and then I got worried when she went away for a few days," he said. "I made inquiries and then police found her in bed, dead." Montabello’s cause of death is yet to be determined but Cloos believes she died from a "hotshot' - a highly strong combination of heroin and fentanyl. "It's hard to talk about," Cloos said. "She was such a beautiful person."