MU grad, former Vox managing editor is killed

A 2005 graduate of MU was killed Friday when a car backed over him at his home in Sarasota, Fla.

News stories from Sarasota reported that Troy Schnelle, 23, was sitting behind the car in his driveway at the time, and that the Sarasota Police Department is still investigating. No charges have been filed.

The public information officer for the Sarasota Police Department could not be reached.

The driver of the car lived in the same house as Schnelle, which is divided into separate apartments, but not with ­Schnelle and Ricci Shryock.

Schnelle graduated from the MU School of Journalism in May 2005 and was initiated into Kappa Tau Alpha, a ­journalism honor society. He was the managing editor of Vox magazine and worked at the Missourian as an undergraduate. He was also a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity.

“One of his favorite things to do was find the little places in Columbia,” said Emily Burnham, a friend and former co-editor of Vox. “He would take stories just so he could go out to these tiny towns in Missouri to meet people.”

Burnham said Schnelle had left a job at the Sarasota Observer to take a job at SRQ, an online magazine.

“He couldn’t have been happier in Florida,” said Tiesha Miller, a friend and co-editor at Vox with Schnelle. “He loved the ocean. He loved that he could walk to work and run into friends.”

Burnham said reading and writing were Schnelle’s passions. He loved Details magazine as well as The New Yorker, she said.

Schnelle’s friends have posted memories of him on Shyrock’s MySpace page.

“I know that when people die, you hear a lot that people are larger than life,” Miller said. “It’s unfortunate it has become cliché because it’s so true for him. He made friends with anybody around.”

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. today at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lockwood.