TAMPA — Adriane Falcon knew something was wrong.

The last she knew, her fiance Dan Allmond was headed to her parents' house in Spring Hill. But he never arrived, and he stopped answering calls and texts.

That was Oct. 2. As days passed, a dreadful realization began to dawn on Allmond's friends and family.

About the time he went missing, news broke of a horrific crash in Tampa. A semitrailer truck had plunged off the Interstate 75 overpass, and the truck's cab landed on a sedan heading east on Fowler Avenue. The wreckage caught fire, burning the car beyond recognition.

By Oct. 5, Allmond's family and Falcon knew what the Florida Highway Patrol would confirm to the public days later: Allmond, 31, was driving his Nissan Sentra when it was crushed and caught fire. He died at the scene.

BACKGROUND: One dead after semitrailer falls off I-75, crushes vehicle below

The sudden loss is compounded by the freak randomness of the crash. Car accidents are a grim fact of life, but this one felt especially cruel.

"I try not to think about it," Falcon, 30, said through tears. "It just makes it harder."

Friends say the crash claimed a man in the prime of his life, a budding actor with big dreams and plans to start a family. Allmond's death leaves a void at the Carrollwood Players Theatre, where he performed and helped with production.

"Dan was more than a just an actor," said Victoria Richards, president of the theater board. "He was part of the Carrollwood Players family, the familiar face, the person that everyone got to know."

One of two siblings, Allmond was born and raised in Inverness and graduated from Citrus High School. He was working as a salesman and service rep at First Place Fitness Equipment in Tampa, but he wanted to make acting a career, Falcon said. He dreamed of landing on a sitcom.

They met on Tinder about three years ago. He was tall and leading-man handsome, but he made her laugh and they shared a passion for acting. She was already acting with the Carrollwood Players at the time. Soon, they were working on productions together there.

Close friend James Faurote, a writer, director and actor who worked with Allmond at the community theater, marvelled at how he could finish a shift at his day job, then work at the theater into the early morning hours preparing for opening night.

"If there was work to be done, Dan was going to do it," he said. "He had pride in it, and he never wanted to let anybody down."

Allmond could take even small roles and make them memorable, Richards said.

"He loved those challenging characters, where he could play the villain or the comic relief, the ones he really had to put work into," Richards said.

Allmond had acted in a few independent films and commercials. He recently did contract work for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, appearing in a television commercial and other marketing materials for an impaired driving campaign called "Drive Baked, Get Busted." He played a driver who gets behind the wheel stoned.

His friends teased him about it, but highway safety officials were grateful.

"Through his work with the department, Daniel made a tremendous impact helping to promote highway safety across the state of Florida, undoubtedly saving lives," the department said in a statement this week.

Allmond hadn't formally proposed to Falcon. He was still saving for an engagement ring and planning the grand proposal he thought she deserved, she said.

But they had already picked a date and venue. Her father has been ill, and they wanted him to be there. On the day of the crash, the couple visited the father in the hospital and agreed they would wed in the hospital chapel if it came to that.

"His love for her was immense," Faurote said of Allmond and Falcon. They were inseparable, he said, and the day of the crash was one of the few times they weren't together.

When the crash happened, Allmond was driving from the couple's new apartment in Tampa to Spring Hill, where the couple had been staying with Falcon's parents until their new place was ready.

In his last role with the Carrollwood Players, Allmond starred in a one-act play called "Meeting Acute." He played Bob, a coma patient caught in limbo between survival and the afterlife. An angel tries to get Bob to fall in love with another patient named Jen, who is caught in the same state.

It was quintessential Dan, Falcon said: funny, witty and nuanced. The play ends with the couple waking up, but the audience doesn't find out if they got together. The story seems unresolved.

Falcon said she believes that at death, the energy of life flows back into the universe. Allmond believed that, too, she said.

"I hope he's not in limbo," she said, and began to cry. "I hope he's truly at peace."

Then, without a pause, she added: "I know he is. I have to believe that, and his family has to believe that."

Contact Tony Marrero at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3374. Follow @tmarrerotimes.