EVERETT — Paula Hincapie wanted to become a mom. She was planning to see her own mother this month for the first time in years.
Hincapie, 29, of Everett, was killed in a plane crash last week near Reno, Nev. Also killed
was her husband, Hector Moreno, 41.
The couple’s friends at Everett Community College are desperate to get in touch with Hincapie’s family and to find the couple’s dog.
The couple, originally from the country of Colombia, had only been in the area about a year. They didn’t have many family or friends here.
Hincapie was a bright student who was finishing up her last level of English as a second language classes at EvCC, said her instructor, John Bruemmer.
Her classmates adored her, he said. They’ve been meeting up at school to console each other.
“They just needed a place to gather, to find some solace,” he said.
The friends are trying to plan a memorial, and they are trying to find Fluffy.
Fluffy, the couple’s Chihuahua, was spending the weekend at a friend’s house while they were gone. The couple planned to return and then drop the dog off with their friend for another trip to see family, fellow EvCC student Angeles Bernard said.
Bernard and other friends are planning to spend this week looking for the dog in north county, she said. It’s possible the sitter doesn’t know what happened.
They believe the dog is at an apartment complex in the Marysville or Arlington area. Bernard plans to adopt the dog when it is found.
Hincapie was studying English so she could get a good job, Bernard said. She had studied international administration or something similar in her home country.
Her husband worked for Boeing in Snohomish County. The couple married about four years ago in Colombia. They spent a year together there before moving to Florida and then south Everett. They had been living in a home along Holly Drive.
Bernard cried as she described her lost friend. The two often studied together and went to Zumba exercise classes together.
Hincapie loved camping and was known to bring along all sorts of games for fellow campers to play, Bernard said. She also loved to go biking whenever she could.
Hincapie hadn’t seen her family in Colombia in years, Bruemmer said. Before the plane crash, her family had plans to fly into Florida on Monday, and the couple planned to spend a month traveling with them in the U.S.
Officials in Nevada said they notified the couple’s families before releasing their names last week.
Their friends in Everett are hashing out plans for a memorial later this month, Bruemmer said.
“There’s too much nebulous stuff we just don’t know,” he said. “What we do know is a good, wonderful person lost her life, and her friends are just looking for some solace and to remember her.”
EvCC’s Counseling, Advising and Career Center has counselors available for any students who are grieving and need support, college spokeswoman Katherine Schiffner said.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com
Memorial plan
If anyone knew Paula Hincapie or Hector Moreno and would like to be involved in a memorial, email prekrashna@ hotmail.com.
Friends of the couple also are trying to find their Chihuahua, Fluffy, who they believe was being cared for in the Marysville or Arlington area.
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