Jennifer Syme
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Jennifer Maria Syme, (December 7, 1972 – April 2, 2001), was an entertainment industry employee, perhaps best known as the girlfriend of actor Keanu Reeves. The pair dated from approximately 1990 until 2000.
Born in Whittier, California, Syme was working as an assistant to film director David Lynch when she and Reeves began dating. Well known in the Los Angeles entertainment industry, she had many celebrity friends including, Marilyn Manson, Scott Ian from Anthrax, Dave Navarro, Monet Mazur, Samantha Maloney, Bijou Phillips, Scott Coffey and Jessicka Fodera from the band Scarling. Syme also had a few minor film roles, including a part in Lynch's Lost Highway. The young woman also wrote the introduction for Manson's 1999 autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.
In December 1999 Syme and Reeves were expecting a daughter - which they had planned to name Ava Archer Reeves - when the infant was stillborn. These events resulted in depression that plagued her for the rest of her life. [1] Her relationship with Reeves ended shortly after their child's death, but the couple remained close friends.
Syme's life ended at the age of 28 in an automobile accident in the spring of 2001. At about 5:50am on April 2, a friend drove Syme back to her home, after a night of partying at Marilyn Manson's Los Angeles mansion (where she had consumed drugs and alcohol). Allegedly at Manson's request, Syme began driving back to the party. At 6:20am, the young woman drove her Jeep Grand Cherokee into a row of parked cars on Cahuenga Blvd, near the onramp for the 101 freeway. The vehicle flipped three times before landing on its side. She had not been wearing her seatbelt, was thrown through the windshield and was killed instantly. Police found cocaine and Vicodin in the car. [2] [3]
Manson was blamed by some for her death, in that he reportedly encouraged Syme to drive in an "incapacitated state." Shortly after the accident, Syme's mother tried to sue Manson for losses. [4] The singer denied the allegations, and said that the young woman got back in the driver's seat that morning for "reasons only known to her". [5]
She was buried next to her daughter in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Director David Lynch dedicated his film Mulholland Drive in tribute to her memory.
