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Memorial set up for teens killed on Halloween night in Santa Ana

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A curbside memorial of candles, bouquets and stuffed toys was erected Saturday morning on the Santa Ana street corner where three teenage girls were killed by a hit-and-run driver on Halloween night.

It was placed at the end of a crosswalk in the 1400 block of Fairhaven Street where two 13-year-old twin sisters and their friend, Andrea Gonzalez, also 13, were fatally injured about 6:45 p.m. by a motorist that Orange County authorities said was “going at a high rate of speed.” Two men are being sought in connection with the incident. The sisters have not been identified.

Among the neighbors and friends of the girls who gathered around the display and lit candles and knelt in silent prayer was Sandra Anderson, 13. Her prayer was simple: “I hope you’re happy in heaven, Andrea.”

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“Andrea was nice to everyone and always wore a smile,” Anderson recalled tearfully.

Some were grappling with their first experience with such a tragedy. Santi Morales, 13, the boyfriend of Andrea, was visibly distraught, pressing his eyes shut with his fingers and shaking his head.

At 10 a.m., under cloudy skies, Darwin Corzantes, 30, who has twin daughters himself, made the sign of the cross and, after a moment of silence, looked up, adjusted his baseball cap and said sternly, “I hope whoever did this acts like a man and accepts full responsibility.”

The sympathizers included witnesses such as Jeff Evans, 50, who said he was leading his children from house to house a half-block away when “I looked up and, in the blink of an eye, saw two young guys speeding in an SUV that slammed into the girls. I heard a collision. It sounded like a big thump, like when a car slams into a tree. Then I heard children screaming and crying.”

Evans said the suspects’ vehicle was heading west on Fairhaven Street when it hit the girls who, he said, “were halfway across the crosswalk and heading toward the north side of the street when it happened.”

It was an especially harsh blow for Andrea’s parents, who live a block from where their daughter, trick-or-treating in a skeleton costume, was killed.

Her brother, Josafat Gonzalez, 21, declined to comment but shared what he called “a serious concern” about safety in the area.

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“Somebody’s got to do something about the lack of lighting on Fairhaven and the cars that race down that dark street almost every night,” he said.

Authorities believe they located the suspect vehicle, a Honda SUV, behind a Big Lots store near the crime scene.

“It has damage to the front of it and evidence inside it,” Bertagna said. Witnesses followed the car after the collision, but the two suspects got away on foot, police said.

Police said the two men were in the vehicle at the time of the incident.

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