TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes died in a place that she loved.

For years, the 30 year-old singer of the Grammy-winning trio TLC would escape to her condo on Honduras’ northern coast, attending a nearby healing village and returning “spiritually cleansed”, her publicist Jay Marose said Friday.

She was in Honduras most recently with her brother, sister and several members of a little-known R&B band called Egypt when she was killed Thursday evening. She lost control of the rental car she was driving and crashed on a highway near Jutiapa, 150 miles (250 kms) north of Tegucigalpa, the capital, and a few miles from her condo.

“The car rolled for reasons that we still don’t know, and that are being investigated,” police spokesman, Luis Aguilar said.

Marose said Lopes was killed instantly and the seven other people in the car suffered non-life threatening injuries, including three members of the band, Egypt; Lopes’ brother and sister; and two producers working on a multimedia project with Lopes.

Local police gave conflicting reports, saying there were only seven people in the car. Officials didn’t identify who they were.

The survivors were taken to a private hospital in nearby La Ceiba, and were expected to be released in a few days.

Lopes’ body was taken to La Ceiba, where it was being prepared to be flown to the United States.

Marose said Lopes often spent weeks or months in Honduras, and had purchased her condo near a healing village that promotes and practices a form of African herbal medicine.

“She absolutely loved the country,” he said. “She wanted to live there.”

US Embassy spokesman Carlos Bakota said friends of Lopes told him she sometimes helped the local community through the spiritual centre, working with the Garifuna people who live along Honduras’ northern coast.

Lopes’ mother has family ties to the Garifuna people, descendants of black slaves and Carib Indians who have maintained their own language and their own culture, Bakota said. Experts estimate more than 160,000 Garifunas live in Central America, and at least 50,000 have migrated to the United States.

The singer had travelled to Honduras most recently to work on a line of clothing and finish up a book about her life, Marose said. She also wanted to introduce members of the band Egypt to the healing village.

“It was something very personal to her,” Marose said. “And it was something she liked to share with people.”

“Lisa loved to travel, loved to find new places. She loved cultures that were really truly spiritual.”