Landslide Victim Mourned : Yosemite Death of Talented Teen Cut Drawing Career Short

Emiliano Morales--known to dozens of friends as “Emi”--was a quiet young man with big dreams and raw talent.

He was blessed with an ability to draw. The 19-year-old had just finished producing a comic book with a story line that pays homage to ordinary people who do extraordinary things. He was preparing for his second year of art school at Loyola Marymount University and often talked of how he wanted to work at Disney someday.

But fate had a different plan.

Last Wednesday, the teenager from Montebello was killed when a huge granite arch broke loose in Yosemite National Park, sending rock and debris tumbling down onto the Happy Isles area, 2,400 feet below.

On Tuesday, 300 friends and family attended Morales’ funeral at St. Turibius Catholic Church in downtown Los Angeles, mourning the loss of a life that had been filled with possibilities.

“In this day and age when people talk about what’s bad about the kids of today, about them getting into gangs, about them getting into trouble, no one ever talks about people like this kid,” said Kevin Shanks, owner of Kult Komics. Shanks hired Morales seven months ago after he answered an ad seeking an artist to work on a new series of comic books.

“This guy was something else,” Shanks said after the services. “He was one of a kind.”

Morales graduated from Loyola High School in 1995, but had several friends at Pioneer High School in Whittier. It is through the Pioneer High connection that he ended up on the camping trip.

“I had gone up to Yosemite three years in a row and I wanted to go with a group of friends,” said Kelly Booth, who organized the trip to celebrate her recent graduation from Pioneer. “I made the reservations in February, staying on the Upper River.”

Morales, Booth and four other teenagers arrived at the park last Wednesday and planned to stay a week. They had just finished a hike and were hanging out around the snack bar at Happy Isles when the landslide occurred.

“We heard what sounded like thunder,” said Dan Cano, who was in the group. “We looked up and saw the rockslide coming down. Everyone started to run.”

Morales was pinned beneath a tree. Another Pioneer High friend--Hisano Hamada, 18--suffered a broken arm and leg and neck injuries. She remains hospitalized in critical condition at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. Booth, who was struck by a falling tree, suffered deep gashes in her arms, legs and face.

On Tuesday, Booth was among those who attended the services and later the burial at Rose Hills Memorial Park.

“I’m thankful that I met him,” she said. “He will be missed. I’ll never forget how happy he was the day we were up there.”

Carlos Estrada, who gave the eulogy, said he met Morales his freshman year at Loyola High.

“He was so quiet, but he had so much going on in his mind,” Estrada said. “The greatest expression of the kind of person he was was the way he treated other people. He never really was in a bad mood. He was always friendly, always approachable. He treated everyone equally and with great respect.”

Morales always was drawing and doodling, and his art regularly appeared in Loyola High’s literary magazine, Estrada said.

“Just about a week or so, we all stopped at a Denny’s to eat,” Estrada said. “He pulled out a napkin and a pen and he drew a profile of me. It took him maybe five or 10 minutes, tops, and it was perfect.

“He would just decide to draw and go for it. He really had a gift.”