The State - News from March 25, 1988

Law enforcement agencies in Modesto dispatched “everybody we can humanly get” to search for a hit-run motorist who ran down and killed a woman and her two children in a crosswalk. All available police officers were “out scouring” and the California Highway Patrol and Stanislaus County sheriff’s office “gave us everybody they could,” Police Sgt. Roger Higby said. Witnesses told police that a silver or gray four-door 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass was seen fleeing the accident scene in west Modesto. Another motorist pursued the car but lost sight of it, Higby said. The car was estimated to be moving at 50 m.p.h. when it hit the victims, who were thrown 50 feet. “There were no skid marks, none,” Higby said. Norma Avilucea, 42, her daughter, Maria Garcia, 6, and son, Perfideo (Bucky) Garcia, 9, were killed.