Staten Island family mourns loss of teen, 18, killed in New Jersey car crash: ‘Lost too soon’

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Staten Island community is sending an outpouring of love and support to the family of Madison Alfano, an 18-year-old college freshman who died in a car crash in New Jersey on Saturday morning.

Madison, of Rossville, was a 2023 graduate of Tottenville High School, and a student at Monmouth University with a major in journalism and a minor in photography. She worked during her winter break in the sports equipment department at the college.

While traveling home from college, she was in a crash on the Garden State Parkway near Exit 127 around 6:23 a.m. Saturday — the exit that drivers take to travel over the Outerbridge Crossing into Staten Island — according to her father, Lou Alfano.

“I can speak for myself — for my feelings. I feel like I’ve died 100 times over,” said Alfano.

Madison was transferred to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and underwent several surgeries by the medical team. Unfortunately, Madison succumbed to her injuries, according to Alfano.

“There wasn’t much more they could do but they tried for eight-plus hours to really save her life,” said Alfano. “I will have to say that medical team there, when you know, we lay Madison to rest and that’s all done, they will definitely get my praise in person for their efforts to save her.”

A GoFundMe was created to help cover funeral and memorial expenses. As of this writing, more than $60,000 had been raised.

A self-employed DJ, Alfano said the outpouring of support from the community has “been great” because he had to pass upcoming events to other DJ companies, resulting in a lack of income.

“That’s just really took the burden off for me not worrying that a funeral was going to bankrupt my family and have the lights turned off. Thank God we got our breathing room now,” he said.

Alfano has a message for families: use the Life360 app. He said he began to pay for the “paid” version of the app when Madison started driving to utilize the safety features. It’s the reason he found out that Madison was in a car crash.

“I want to express to anyone with children that they should purchase Life360,” he said. “I do not work for them. I do not make any money for them. But we got an alert that my daughter was in a crash. They sent out the authorities. I followed her location on the GPS. I was with her at the hospital and me and my wife were there from the minute she walked into the hospital every step of the way. Whether she was conscious or not — known or not, or she knows now — she was not alone there. We knew where our baby was. If we did not have Life360, the way that accident went down, they would eventually probably found out through who owned the vehicle, who to contact, way past when she passed. We would have got news just handed to our door horrifically.”

In addition to her parents, Lou and Michelle, two younger sisters survive Madison — Lucia, a freshman at Tottenville High School, and Ashley, an eighth-grade student at Totten Intermediate School (I.S. 24).

Madison was always happy, according to her father. She loved her friends, “The Office” sitcom show, and singer-songwriter Billie Eillish.

“She was Billie Eillish’s number one fan because she told me she liked every picture that Billie Eillish posted on Instagram. I said, ‘Madison, you’re gonna get banned from her account.’ But she loved Billie Eillish. She loved her dog Leo that she bought on her own on her 17th birthday, a little Bernedoodle and she just loved him,” said her dad.

Madison was also in the honors program at Monmouth University with a 3.8 GPA in her first semester. Alfano said his daughter loved school and loved residing at the dorm, as she was always independent.

“She was independent,” said Alfano. “She loved her family, but she couldn’t wait to be 18, to be a woman, and she was doing a lot of schooling herself. She got a job. She loved having a car and being able to drive and just being independent — for good, just trying to build a good life and unfortunately, tragically she was lost too soon.”

Madison also worked part-time as a hostess at the former Lobo Loco restaurant in New Springville, according to Alfano.

“She was a really sweet girl, young, always smiling, friendly. Good kid,” said a former Lobo Loco coworker of Madison. “As a mom, I just feel so much for her parents, they must be devastated.”

Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 1-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. at Scarpaci Funeral Home in Pleasant Plains. A funeral mass will be held at Holy Child R.C. Church in Annadale on Thursday at 10 a.m., followed by a burial at Resurrection Cemetery.