Family, Friends Staggered by Freak Death of Toddler

Relatives and friends tried Monday to make sense of the tragic death of 19-month-old Stephanie Quinones, who was run over by her mother’s van in front of a Westminster church as the family prepared to attend Mass on Sunday.

“We have no answer to this,” said Father James Hartnett, pastor of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church where the tragedy occurred. “This is the mystery of the providence of God. We have only our faith to fall back on at this time.”

The accident occurred at 11:10 a.m. Sunday as Stephanie’s mother, Claudia Gregory Quinones, dropped off family members near the curb at the front of the church because they were late for the 11 a.m. Mass, Westminster Police Sgt. Larry Russell said Monday.

Quinones, 39, a senior planner for an electrical company, was going to park the van, then rejoin the family inside, Russell said.

With her foot on the brake pedal and the van’s transmission still in “drive,” Quinones had let out her two children, Marie, 14, and Sean, 16, and the light-haired Stephanie, who was clutching a small doll. The last passenger, Irene Kennedy, identified as Quinones’ mother, stepped outside the van but got her hand caught in the sliding door when it closed, Russell said.

As Quinones reached over to pull up the lock on the door, so her mother could extract her hand, police said Quinones lifted her foot from the brake pedal. The van lurched forward into a parked car, Russell said. Quinones then put the van in reverse and backed up into a car parked behind her, he said.

After the van came to rest, the family members noticed that Stephanie had wandered away in the confusion. It was then, Russell said, that they found her small body lying next to the left rear wheel of the van. Russell said investigators believe the toddler had either crawled or fallen under the van, and that she was run over by a wheel when the vehicle rolled forward or backward.

Dead on Arrival

Paramedics from a nearby fire station rushed to the scene and struggled in vain to save the girl. About 700 parishioners attended Mass inside, unaware of the tragedy.

As the ambulance prepared to transport the girl to the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, a priest who was not participating in the Mass was summoned to administer last rites. The child was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Police called it a freak accident and said they are not assigning blame. However, friends said Quinones and her husband, Willie, 47, a school district electrical supervisor who was not in the van, are struggling with guilt.

Quinones has told friends she thought she had put the van in “park,” not “drive.”

“Everyone asks, ‘What if? What if I would have done this?,’ or ‘What if I would have done that?’,” said Susan Graziadei, a family friend.

“The family is just devastated,” said a co-worker of Claudia Quinones who asked not to be identified.

“God needed a little angel--that’s why he took her away,” said a tearful Mildred Spriggs, an elderly neighbor and friend of the victim’s family.

Spriggs said Stephanie’s father went around to other neighbors’ homes Monday morning, crying and telling everyone what had happened. Spriggs, whose nickname for the toddler was “Love,” said she was a happy, popular child on the street of single-family stucco homes.

“This is a sad neighborhood,” Spriggs said. “The baby had just started talking and had just started walking. She had the cutest little walk. And she was so very petite, and sweet and loveable. I have talked with her and held her in my arms. . . . There’s going to be no one to take her place.”

At the family’s brown stucco home, Graziadei and a woman companion stood in the front driveway Monday, folding up Stephanie’s blue stroller while the child’s parents tended to funeral arrangements.

“She’s in heaven now and God is watching over her,” said Graziadei, her eyes swollen from crying. “All prayers would be appreciated.”

Father Hartnett said he has asked the 3,000 families that belong to the Blessed Sacrament Church parish to offer up their prayers for the Quinones family.

In addition, the church is accepting donations to the family in Stephanie’s name. Those contributions can be sent to Blessed Sacrament Church, 14072 Olive St., Westminster 92683.

Claudia Quinones’ employer, Varec division of Emerson Electric in Cypress, also began collecting donations among workers Monday.

The family requested that private services be held for the victim at the church, a church secretary said.