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Teen’s restored memorial is gone, mementos missing, family says

Bernice Torres, left, carves a heart in a tree Monday as Nicole Balbuena lights a candle at a memorial last week where Luis Adrian Torres died in a car crash.
(SCOTT SMELTZER / Daily Pilot)
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The family of a Costa Mesa teen killed in a car accident last week says that the memorial they were allowed to put back up has been removed and that the mementos placed there are gone.

Luis Adrian Torres, 19, a 2011 graduate of Estancia High School, died June 16 after his car crashed into a tree on Susan Street near Sunflower Avenue, according to police.

Torres’ family put up a makeshift memorial along Susan Street but were soon asked to remove it from the private median owned by the Providence Park development.

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On Friday, the chief executive of the company that manages Providence Park invited the family to reconstruct the memorial, and it went up again Saturday.

On Sunday, the family said they had learned that the memorial had again been removed. Among the missing items are Torres’ Bible, his shirt from Chipotle and other mementos.

“I just want his things back,” said his sister Bernice Torres, 21.

A public funeral service viewing for Luis Torres will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at Harbor Christian Fellowship Church, 740 W. Wilson St., Costa Mesa.

A burial service for family only will be at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary, 1702 E. Fairhaven Ave., Santa Ana.

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