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Victim Killed In Garden State Parkway Crash Was Popular Dog Groomer

Loved ones are remembering a 51-year-old woman who was killed on the Garden State Parkway in Middlesex County earlier this month.

Melissa Craden

Melissa Craden

Photo Credit: Melissa Craden Facebook photo

Melissa M. Craden of Scotch Plains was traveling northbound on the Parkway in Woodbridge at 3:10 p.m. Nov. 6 when her 2009 Jeep Liberty sideswiped another vehicle near milepost 131.9, a New Jersey State Police spokesman said.

Craden’s Jeep flipped and she was ejected, Sgt. Alejandro Goez said. 

The driver of the other vehicle, a 2000 Chevrolet Impala, suffered minor injuries, Goez said.

Craden was well-known as the owner of Grooming by Melissa, a mobile pet grooming salon she had run for the past 20 years,  according to her obituary.

She was born in Livingston and later moved to Maplewood, her obit says.

She graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in 1988 and later earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies and advertising from Glassboro State University in 1992, according to her obit.

Her obituary praised her "fun-loving, vivacious, bubbly personality, as well as her kind and generous heart."

Click here for the full obituary.

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