BOZEMAN — Friends of 18-year-old Madison Leigh Montgomery-Lukenbill say she was a ray of sunshine.
"When you like to look up at the sky, you see clouds and certain shapes and colors. You see her," says one friend.
"She was loud, vibrant, and bubbly all the time as if she always had the biggest smile ever," says another friend.
"She always had the biggest heart when it came to everybody else," says Aryanna Salzar.
A few of her friends gathered together dressed in purple to honor Madison.
Aryanna, one of Madison's best friends, remembers getting the call Madison had died in a car crash early Sunday morning, Sept. 15.
"Like it was a blur, it didn't feel real. I felt like I was just lost," says Salzar.
Three other teens were also injured in the accident that happened on Kelly Canyon Road east of Bozeman.
According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the driver, a 17-year-old boy who has not been identified, lost control of the car. The car slammed into a guard rail and continued over the creek and up an embankment, where it came to rest on the passenger side.
Madison's friends say they are stronger in coming together after the accident.
"The more time I have with everybody, the more I know that that's what she wants us to do. And I can feel her more," says Salzar.
The teens walk the same trails they once walked with Madison. Coming here to Hyalite is a memory they hold close.
"Just listening to songs and coming up here..."
Madison was happy to sing any genre. But especially?
"Rap God! She learned the whole thing, and she wanted to show everybody," says Salzar.
From Eminem to Disney, Madison loved it all. At graduation, everyone knew it was Madi from her DIY grad cap.
"She loved Tangled! So she always watched it. She loved it. To see her tie in her favorite color and to know that in Tangled, her dress is purple, it's just so Maddy," says friend Kiersten Kendall.
Madison also had a love of glitter.
"Lots of glitter! My room will not have glitter in it because that girl came over with a can of body glitter and hair glitter," says Salzar.
As a cheerleader at Belgrade High and the University of Montana Western, Madi loved performing and was also a theater major.
"I did yearbook our senior year, so I have many pictures of her just cheering away, doing her thing. She was always just so smiley," says friend Haylee Coelho.
Madison is a friend none of them will ever forget.
A GoFundMe has been launched to help bring support to Madison's family during this difficult time.
