Week in Review: Crash Victim Mourned, Big Plans for Brooks Estate, Amelia Earhart, Springstep

Mourners gathered at a Woburn Church Wednesday to celebrate the life of Alanna DeMella, a 26-year-old Medford resident who was killed in a tragic accident in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Sunday. DeMella, who was 7 months pregnant, was struck by a car that barreled off the road into her and her husbands vacation cabana.

A proposed $2.3 million bond would turn the Brooks Estate into a place where events like weddings could be held and community meetings could take place, according to members of its land-trust association. But the bond has drawn scrutiny from some, who want the city to address infrastructure needs before undertaking a historic restoration project

The studios building on George P. Hassett Drive was listed for sale last week, but the listing has since been pulled. The asking price for the building was $4.65 million, according to the listing, which appeared on Loopnet.com and other commercial real estate websites earlier in March.

Foreclosures were up last month compared to February 2011 in Medford, in line with state trends, according to data from the Warren Group. In Medford, there were eight foreclosure petitions in February 2012, compared to three last February, according to the data. Year date, there were 12 foreclosure petitions in Medford through February compared to eight through February 2011.

Experts believe they have a good lead on the location of Amelia Earhart's plane in the Pacific Ocean, and they will be launching a new search for it this summer, according to multiple news reports. Photos taken months after Earhart's crash in 1937 near what is now Kiribati show what may be Earhart's landing gear protruding from the water off the Pacific nation of Kiribati, according to an Associated Press report published in the San Francisco Chronicle.