Tampa, FL : 5 killed in fiery Tampa crash on Thursday, 27th October, 2016
Marianela Murillo spent the last evening of her life in one of her favorite places.
The 39-year-old Colombian immigrant attended services Wednesday at the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom hall off East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The congregation prayed and read the Bible.
Afterward, Murillo piled into her Toyota Sienna minivan with her three children and a niece and headed for their apartment about a mile and a half away.
"I hugged and kissed them goodbye," said friend and fellow church member Marcia Santana.
Pablo Cortes III spent the last evening of his life in one of his favorite places, too.
The 22-year-old Brandon man attended a meet-up of fellow car enthusiasts at the Grand Prix go-kart track in Tampa, a friend said. Cortes showed off his metallic blue Volkswagen Golf with the custom rims and tricked-out suspension, then left with a friend in his passenger seat.
Soon after, the Volkswagen and Toyota collided on Martin Luther King Boulevard in one of the most horrific local crashes in recent memory.
Murillo and two of her children, Maria, 10, and John, 9, died at the scene. So did Cortes and his passenger, 19-year-old Jolie Bartolome of Lithia.
Cortes was exceeding the posted 50-mph speed limit but investigators were still working to determine his actual speed, said Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Steve Gaskins.
Although early reports at the scene indicated the crash may have been caused by street racing, Gaskins said troopers don't have any evidence to support that. A preliminary report states Cortes was driving in a "careless or negligent manner."
"There were no cars around him right where the crash occurred so racing was not a factor" Gaskins said. "But speed was."
Investigators say Cortes lost control near Coconut Palm Drive, just east of the Tampa Bypass Canal, and crossed the grassy median.
Murillo was heading east and was about to turn into her apartment complex when the Volkswagen collided nearly head-on with the Toyota.
The Volkswagen then rotated and hit a Toyota Scion. Its driver, Carla Marie Wyman, 54, of Seffner, suffered serious injuries. The force of the collision crumpled the Golf into a mass of metal that hardly resembled a car. The Sienna caught fire.
Murillo's 18-year-old daughter, Lina Bernal, and 15-year-old niece Luisa Louisa, who was visiting on vacation from Colombia, were taken to Tampa General Hospital with critical injuries.
Murillo's husband and the father of the children, John Bernal, was at the hospital but too distraught to talk, said Santana, the family friend.
Lina was in critical condition but able to ask what happened.
"They don't want to tell her yet," Santana said.
On Wednesday night, Murillo's sister, Paola Murillo, looked over at the crash scene with her brother-in-law refusing to believe her family could be inside the scorched mini van, according to a Facebook post she wrote in Spanish.
The nightmare of Wednesday night keeps playing back in her head, she wrote. She recalled her brother-in-law telling her, "that is the car of my wife and my kids."
"I answered no. It's a car that looks like it. It's not hers," Paola Murillo wrote. "Then why isn't she answering her phone ... and why haven't they arrived home...?
"Until the end, God knows I had all the hope."
Santana said the couple has lived in the United States for about 15 years and that Marianela became a citizen just a few months ago.
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5 killed in fiery Tampa crash