Family grieves Cloverdale girl killed in crash during street race

This story was published in 2015

Silvia Contreras said her 16-year-old daughter Angelica often spoke about her dream of going to college and one day leading a career as a forensic investigator, working on crime scenes and examining victims’ bodies to determine their cause of death.

On Sunday, Contreras could hardly grasp the reality that her daughter, a fun-loving teen with lots of friends, was now the subject of one of those investigations - her dreams cut down and her life ended Friday night on the outskirts of Cloverdale when she was apparently struck by a car thought to be involved in a street race.

“She said, ‘Mom, when I graduate from the university I want to become an investigator,’” Contreras said, speaking in Spanish. “And look what happened to her.”

The Contreras family, including her parents and several siblings, spoke Sunday from the living room of their Cloverdale home, which had been transformed over what was to be a celebratory weekend, marking the end of the school year, into a place of incredible grief.

Angelica, who was born in Sonoma County and raised in Cloverdale, was heading into her junior year at Cloverdale High School. She told her parents Friday that she would be with friends downtown, where there would be live music and food as part of the city’s Friday Night Live summertime event.

She wound up later that night, however, sitting on a concrete railing on the east end of the East First Street bridge over the Russian River, according to witnesses and authorities. It was from there, a witness said, that she and other teens were spectators in a race between two cars, a red Volkswagen Beetle and a silver BMW.

The 1998 VW was driven by a 16-year-old Cloverdale teen and the 2008 BMW 535i sedan was driven by a 17-year-old Cloverdale teen, according to the CHP. Investigating officers don’t believe the drivers were intoxicated as they took off along the long, straight roadway headed toward the bridge.

Just before 10:20 p.m., going faster than 50 mph, the VW driver lost control and hit a raised concrete abutment, according to investigators. The two cars collided and the BMW driver veered off into the dirt.

The VW hit the girl, knocking her off of the bridge 150-feet to the riverbank below.

A girl who said she was near Contreras at the moment of impact said no one saw Contreras get hit, and some suspected she fled the scene and went home for fear of getting in trouble.

Someone reported the crash, bringing sheriff’s deputies, Cloverdale police, Cloverdale firefighters, paramedics and CHP officers.

Officers called the parents of the two drivers, who came to get them and deal with the cars.

No one told officers or other responders that the girl who’d been at the race was missing, the CHP said.

Angelica’s body was discovered eight hours later by a passing cyclist who spotted her body on the east bank of the river, just south of the bridge. A call to 911 at 7 a.m. alerted the CHP and eventually the girl’s body was connected to the earlier race and crash.

The California Highway Patrol notified her family Saturday morning. Authorities have yet to officially name the girl as the victim in the crash because family members have not confirmed identification of her body, which is being held at the Sonoma County morgue. An autopsy was being conducted Monday.

With the finding of the girl’s body, the crash turned into a possible criminal investigation. Both vehicles have been impounded as evidence. The CHP, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department and Office of the District Attorney are investigating.

CHP officials said the investigation will include why no one was alerted that the girl was missing just after the crash.

In the moments that followed the crash, several people searched for Angelica and called to her by name, according to the girl who said she was next to Angelica when the crash occurred.

But Angelica’s mother said Sunday that none of the girl’s friends contacted her to tell her Angelica was missing.

Contreras said she thought Angelica had come home Friday night and was in her room when Contreras left the house at 1 a.m. Saturday to start her newspaper delivery route. It wasn’t until later Saturday morning, when Contreras was sorting grapes at a local vineyard, her primary job, that she learned her daughter had been killed.

“I don’t know how I’m going to live or anything. I don’t know where I’m going to start again,” the mother said, sobbing as she stood in the hallway outside Angelica’s small bedroom.

A portrait of Mexico’s beloved Virgin of Guadalupe hung on the wall at the head of a small twin-size bed, and a plastic patio chair sat next to a dresser stocked with well-organized beauty products.

A year ago in April, Angelica celebrated her quinceañera, a popular coming-of-age celebration for Mexican-American and other Latin American girls that takes place on their 15th birthday.

On Sunday, Contreras went through an album bulging with photographs of the ceremony. Some of the same pictures were hanging on a wall in the living room, surrounded by colorful flowers and votive candles.

“She had dreams like any other girl,” Contreras said.

Her older sister Melissa said Angelica loved to cook and that for several years she had taken charge of preparing the family’s Thanksgiving meal.

“She would cook the turkey every year since she was little,” her mother said.

On Friday night, Contreras dropped off Angelica and her younger brother, Jesus, 12, so they could attend the 6 p.m. Cloverdale High School graduation ceremony. After that, Angelica told her mother she would be going to the Friday Night Live concert downtown while her brother was going to the movies.

The two siblings were supposed to reunite after the movies, Contreras said. When Jesus arrived home at about 11 p.m., he texted Angelica when he noticed she wasn’t home.

Contreras said she thought Angelica had come home with her brother and that she didn’t check because she was in bed trying to rest before her delivery shift. When she came home at about 4:30 a.m., she said, she still thought her daughter was in her room. She made herself lunch and left for her vineyard job.

“The girls who were with her didn’t tell me anything. They didn’t say anything,” Contreras said.

CHP Sgt. David Derczo said witnesses and one of the drivers involved in the suspected street race were re-interviewed over the weekend.

Those interviews were more formal and were recorded with audio or video equipment, unlike the statements taken at the scene Friday night, Derczo said.

Derczo said one of the drivers invoked his right to legal counsel and is scheduled to be interviewed at the local CHP offices in Rohnert Park Monday. Derczo said he could not release the name of that driver or say whether he was behind the wheel of the Beetle or BMW for fear that such a disclosure would interfere with the investigation.

“The other driver gave a complete statement and didn’t invoke the right to counsel,” Derczo said.

He said it would be up to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office to determine what charges, if any, would be sought.

At the scene of the crash Sunday, evidence of vehicle damage was strewn about the site. Pieces of auto glass and fragments of yellow and red reflectors were circled with bright green spray paint.

Families visiting the Russian River parked on a nearby narrow dirt shoulder and walked down the embankment, close to where Angelica is thought to have been propelled by the violent collision.

At the base of one of the massive pylons supporting the East First Street bridge, a memorial started Saturday by friends had grown to include flowers, votive candles and photographs of Angelica.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.

Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report.