Mourners Pay Last Respects to Sisters Killed by Train

Inseparable in life, two toddlers struck by a commuter train in San Bernardino County last week were put to rest Wednesday in a shared steel coffin, after grieving relatives and friends paid their last respects.

“They looked like little angels together,” said Virginia Anguiano, one of more than 200 mourners who viewed the sisters during a funeral ceremony in Upland and later participated in the winding cortege to Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Pomona.

The children’s mother, Jackie Robles, 21, was disconsolate and had to be carried part of the way from the funeral home to a waiting hearse. Robles is to be back in Juvenile Court on Thursday, seeking to regain custody of her 2-month-old son, Fernando Soto Jr., now in the care of an aunt, said her attorney, Chaim Magnum.

The children’s grieving fathers were also present.

Buried Wednesday were Alexes Elaine Robles, 3, and Deziree Andrea Soto, 22 months.

The funeral came eight days after the sisters wandered from their mother’s Upland apartment to train tracks half a block away as Robles slept. Metrolink officials said the 3-year-old appeared to be attempting to pull her sibling from danger just before the locomotive, unable to stop in time, struck the pair.

Upland police arrested Robles, a Pomona native, on suspicion of child endangerment. She was later released without being charged. As a precautionary measure, county officials took the 2-month-old away from Robles on the day of the incident, but later placed the boy in her aunt’s care, said Robles’ lawyer.

The tragedy became a talk-radio sensation that portrayed Robles alternately as a careless single mother and as a dedicated parent who fell asleep out of fatigue after tending to her ailing infant son.

The incident epitomized the nightmares of many parents.

“She’s going to think about it every time she hears a train,” said Rose Aguilar, an Upland resident who came to the funeral home and who placed bouquets along the tracks where the children were killed.

Relatives and friends insist that Robles is a good parent.

“She’s a very dedicated mother,” said Jerome Swensrud, a friend of Robles. “She was always with those kids.”

Others, however, reflected the deep divisions about her actions. “I feel for her, but she was very careless,” said Aguilar, a mother of four grown children. “I know you get tired with babies, but you just can’t fall asleep.”

Still, Aguilar, like everyone else who agreed to speak to a reporter, said it was wrong for the police to arrest Robles without sufficient evidence to charge her.

Upland Police Chief Martin Thouvenell has defended the decision to arrest Robles, hinting at other factors but not revealing them. The investigation is continuing, authorities say.

Magnum, Robles’ attorney, said the mother has no known history of child abuse or illicit drug use.

Mourners also directed their outrage at Metrolink authorities because the train track in a residential area was not fenced off. On Sunday, Metrolink officials erected a temporary, 6-foot-high chain-link fence along 800 feet of track in Upland. Construction began Wednesday on a permanent, 1,400-foot fence.

“Metrolink is doing everything it can to prevent these real tragedies,” said Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for the publicly financed commuter railroad, which has 416 miles of track in Southern California, mostly unfenced. “In this case, unsupervised toddlers wandered onto our track.”

The two girls were buried after a priest sprinkled holy water on their coffin and led mourners in reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

Times staff writer Tom Gorman in Riverside contributed to this story.