Mother Visits Site of Crash That Killed 2 Daughters

As soon as she arrived from Mexico, Rosamaria Quinonez wanted to see the strip of asphalt where her two daughters died in a tangle of metal and glass. So, before dawn on Christmas Day, her shivering and weeping relatives took her to visit the site.

“We prayed and cried,” a relative said of the impromptu vigil. “It was very emotional and hard.”

Christmas was a hard day for the entire Quinonez family as waves of visitors and callers reached out to share their loss.

Lizett and Claudia Quinonez were killed early Tuesday when a stolen car being chased by Cypress police smashed into the side of their car.

Police said Wednesday that their investigation into the incident is continuing.

One of the three people in the suspects’ car, Abraham Camarena, 14, of Cerritos, died Tuesday afternoon from injuries.

The other two occupants--driver Oscar Rodriguez, 18, of Buena Park, and an unidentified 16-year-old girl--were hospitalized with serious injuries. Rodriguez will face vehicular manslaughter charges, police said.

The Quinonez sisters were returning home from a fast-food restaurant in a 1980 Honda Civic when the other car, going more than 80 mph, ran a red light and smashed into them, police said.

Lizett, a 22-year-old nursing aide, was three months pregnant. Claudia, 16, was visiting from Mexico.

On Wednesday, relatives and friends crowded Lizett’s modest Cerritos Avenue apartment. Photos of the sisters were hung on the wall and stacked on a photo album near a Christmas tree in the corner.

Instead of opening gifts in revelry, the family huddled around Rosamaria Quinonez, 45, who flew from her home in Guadalajara to Tijuana, then was driven north to Orange County by a nephew. Her husband, Jose Manuel Quinonez, remained in Mexico to arrange the funeral.

The site of the crash was marked when Rosamaria Quinonez arrived. Friends and family--along with strangers touched by the holiday tragedy--had left behind flowers, candles and notes at the spot where the mangled wreckage had sat a day earlier.

After the pilgrimage to the crash site, Rosamaria Quinonez insisted on going to the coroner’s office to see the bodies of her daughters.

“She wants to be with her daughters,” said her 25-year-old niece, Ada Gonzalez of Glendale.