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Father of Times Square crash victim leaves moving letter to New Yorkers

The father of the 18-year-old woman who was killed when an erratic driver struck her and more than a dozen others in Times Square last week left a letter at the scene of the crash to his daughter and the families of other victims.

Thomas Elsman confirmed he was the letter’s author on Facebook, posting a photo of it along with noting that he left a rosary bead “to let the world know we are one.”

Alyssa Elsman, 18, of Portage, Michigan, was fatally struck when a man drove his car onto a sidewalk and barreled down three blocks at a high speed on May 18, 2017, the NYPD said. Twenty other pedestrians were hit and injured in the crash. Her 13-year-old sister, identified as Ava Elsman by middle school officials, was among those injured on Thursday afternoon.

The one-page letter, signed “Dad,” was left at a growing memorial near the scene of the crash, at 45th Street and Seventh Avenue, on Sunday night.

“Alyssa loved this city…she loved Times Square,” the letter reads. “She would appreciate all your kind words but she would also tell you all to get back up and continue. That’s how full of life my daughter was. This city and our hearts are scarred, cut to the core, but in true New York fashion…We will heal…We will prevail…and we will never forget.”

The letter continues: “I am blank … I have a hole in my heart that can never be filled. My world changed when you came into it and it is unexplainable with you leaving it. I love you kid. Just no words.”