Community mourns loss of young woman ready to launch teaching career

Feb. 28—The young woman who died when the rural Le Center home she was house-sitting exploded Saturday night was quietly accomplished and respected, ready to launch into a career as a teacher of young children.

"She was a homegrown kid who was working in our district and working to get into education," said Lonnie Seifert, superintendent of Tri-City United Schools, of 20-year-old Kailey Mach.

"She was very well liked. She was involved in our dance team and very involved in music. She was well respected. She wasn't a big outgoing personality. She just did things the right way and was respected for it," Seifert said. "For someone only 20 years old, she was really looked up to as very mature for her age."

Mach graduated from Tri-City's Montgomery high school in 2019 and was attending Augsburg University in Minneapolis, studying elementary education.

Mach's uncle, Tim Siebsen, told KARE 11 that his niece was following her dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher.

"She worked so hard to be a teacher; she was going to graduate almost a year early," Siebsen said. "She was an employee of TCU schools working as a KidZone leader (before and after child care), and she also worked as a preschool aide in the district. She was so loved by all of her kiddos. She was so loved by anyone that met her. She did all this while taking more than a full-time class load at Augsburg."

The superintendent said Mach's work in the school district's KidZone left an impact.

"We have three different KidZone sites and she subbed in the other two sites, so she had an impact on a lot of our younger kids. She just had a way of connecting with kids and treating them the right way and making them feel important," Seifert said.

Mach's parents also have been very involved in the school district. Her mom drives school bus and volunteers in the music department and has been a chaperone on school band and choir trips.

Seifert said Mach was trying to set up her student teaching assignment for this fall. "She was hoping to student teach in our district." Tri-City includes Le Center, Montgomery and Lonsdale.

Augsburg University officials released a statement Sunday: "The Augsburg University community is deeply saddened by Kailey's tragic passing this weekend. We offer our profound condolences to her family, friends, professors, classmates, and all who were close to her."

Mach was house-sitting and watching the dogs of the home's owners, who were out of the area, when the explosion happened about 6 miles northeast of Le Center.

When firefighters extinguished the fire, they found her body in the basement.

A 911 call reported the explosion and ensuing fire at about 11:25 p.m.

Le Sueur County Sheriff Brett Mason said everyone was hit hard by the death.

"It's just a tragic incident. It's terrible."

He said it will likely be a couple of weeks before the fire marshal can get through the forensic analysis of the site to pinpoint a cause for the explosion and fire.

Mason said the size of the explosion leads to the conclusion that gas fumes were likely involved. He said that as far as he knows the rural home was heated with liquid petroleum fuel, not natural gas.