Melbourne, Australia -- Actress Jessie Jacobs, who starred in the Canadian-Australian children's TV series The Saddle Club, was buried yesterday after being hit and killed by a train on May 10. She was 17.
More than 500 mourners attended a church funeral service in her hometown of Melbourne.
The emerging stage and screen actress and musician slipped from a Melbourne railway platform and was killed instantly by a train.
The accident occurred at a commuter station. Apparently, she was on her way to buy a birthday present for her older brother, Adam Jacobs.
Yesterday, he described her as an overachiever. "'Everything she did was so good," he told the newspaper, The Australian: "She was very grounded and likeable, very mellow and did not let anything get to her head, despite the fact she had been in these shows and was recognized a bit."
However, he said the family had been deeply upset that a station attendant who witnessed the death suggested it had been a suicide. He said that when his stepfather and mother visited the scene, a staff person at the station took his stepfather aside to tell him it had not been an accident. "This lady said she could say it was not an accident. When he asked her if she was pushed, she said 'no,' " Mr. Jacobs said. "My mum overheard all of this. She is so traumatized."
The transit company has launched an investigation.
By all accounts, many hours elapsed before family could be located. The teenager, police said, had been carrying only false ID.
At 12, Ms. Jacobs had played the part of Melanie Atwood on The Saddle Club. The Australian TV series also screened in Canada and Britain from 2001 to 2004 and was based on the books of American author Bonnie Bryant.
She is survived by her parents and three brothers, Adam, Seth and Charlie.
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