Orlando Sentinel
LEESBURG, Fla. – The father of four sisters killed in a wreck on Interstate 95 walked into Carver Middle School on Tuesday to deliver a heart-wrenching message.
Manuel Cruz had gotten an automated phone call that one of his kids hadn’t showed up for class, Principal Mollie Cunningham said. Cruz wanted administrators to understand that his beautiful girls – known for their big smiles and looking out for one another – can’t come to school any more.
“My heart broke for him,” she said. “He appeared, and it hit me. I saw it from a parent’s perspective, the pain, the pain in his face.”
The girls’ mother, Latorya Brown, 34, was driving the Dodge Durango SUV northbound in Titusville about 6:40 p.m. Monday when the crash happened. The group was headed home from Cocoa Beach, where they celebrated Brown’s birthday. The 2006 vehicle had 11 people piled inside when the left rear tire’s tread separated, troopers said.
The vehicle, designed to carry eight people, flipped over and four occupants were ejected, including a toddler who was tossed over a 30-foot barrier wall, troopers said. Emergency crews heard the child’s cries and eventually located him on the other side of the wall, Florida Today reported.
The Durango came to rest in the southbound grass shoulder, troopers said. The sisters who died were identified as Amunya Cruz, 15; Jazmin Cruz, 14; Niashia Cruz, 13; and Nadia Cruz, 10. Another sister, Shakara Cruz, 9, survived but remained hospitalized Tuesday.
The girls’ grandmother, Glenda Wright, said the toddler and the other survivors are doing well.
Amunya, a ninth-grader at Leesburg High, had been a cheerleader at Carver Middle last year, Cunningham said. She just started driving on a restricted license and had aspirations to attend college to be a pediatrician or cosmetologist. She would have turned 16 next month and was excited about a sweet 16 party, Wright said.
Jazmin was in the seventh grade and Niashia, pronounced Nih-asia, was in the sixth grade, both at Carver Middle, Cunningham said.
She said Manuel Cruz seemed to take comfort when she told him that his daughters were “daddy’s girls” who clearly loved one another and were among the happiest kids at the school.
“But how do you (recuperate) from that?” she said of the father’s grief. “How?”
Nadia, a fourth-grader at Beverly Shores Elementary, died Tuesday morning.
“When I think of Nadia, I think of every morning when she came in,” Principal Monica Gordon said. “She had the biggest smile, and she would give me the biggest hug.
“She was full of love and life, and she had a beautiful spirit.”
Nadia’s little sister Shakara, the lone surviving sibling, is a third-grader at Beverly Shores. She’s proved to be stronger than many of the adults, her grandmother said.
Grief counselors were sent to three Leesburg schools as well as to Tavares Middle School because a fifth Lake County child, Bradley Haugen, 11, was killed in a weekend ATV accident.
The Cruz sisters’ mother was taken to a Brevard hospital and was released Tuesday, Florida Today reported. She was wearing a seat belt, troopers said.
Four more children from Leesburg also were in the vehicle, ranging in age from 3 to 16. They were described as friends and family members.
Brown’s boyfriend, Kevin Rawlings, 23, of Wildwood, was also a passenger.
Cunningham, who said the girls were “very popular,” delivered cards of condolence some of the students made for the sisters’ grandmother. As she drove out of the grandmother’s driveway, Cunningham said she could see the woman begin to pull the hand-drawn cards out of a big manila envelope and read each one.
Sympathizers at Wright’s home spilled into the yard, numb at the accident’s toll.
“We’re holding up the best we can,” Wright said.
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