Crime & Safety

Transfiguration Church Fondly Remembers Michelle Cio

Cio, recently of Tarrytown, died at the scene of a wrong-wrong crash on the Taconic this weekend.

Michelle Cio, who authorities say was driving the wrong way down the Taconic Saturday morning when she was killed in a head-on collision, is being remembered in Tarrytown as an active and important member of the Transfiguration Church.

Cio, 34, had been a registered member of the congregation since 2007 and continued in her duties there as a Eucharistic minister, assisting with communion, after moving in June from Tarrytown to Ossining.

The church listed her name in the prayers for the recently deceased at all their masses this weekend.

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“Saturday’s car accident on the Taconic State Parkway is obviously tragic,” said Transfiguration Reverend John Horan in a statement he issued Monday for the press. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with both the victims and their families. We pray that Michelle Cio rests peacefully in the hands of God and that her family and friends may find consolation in the midst of grief. We also pray for Alicia Asadoorian, that she receives the care and support she needs for a quick and complete recovery.”

Asadoorian, 26, of Yorktown, was the driver of the other car involved in the accident who is being treated for leg injuries at Westchester Medical Center, police say.

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The church was unaware of any funeral plans yet made for Cio, but said her family hails from Virginia.

“I’m a single mom and my daughter’s father is deceased,” her oldest sister Dawn Cio told the Journal News. “Michelle always looked for ways to show up in my daughter’s life, to motivate her to become a better person, and to always use tragedy that happened in my daughter’s life as a tool instead of a crutch to get through life.”

According to the Journal News, Dawn Cio said her sister always had rosary beads with her as a sign of her faith, and had them in her Honda Civic with her when she died.


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