In a tragic incident early Sunday morning, an 18-year-old woman from Texas crashed her car into a home in Stephenville, resulting in the deaths of a mother and her 7-year-old son.
The driver, identified as Gracie Yates, faces charges of criminally negligent homicide for the accident, which occurred just before 3:30 a.m., according to a statement from the Stephenville Police Department.
Numerous family members sustained injuries and were transported to the hospital, where 49-year-old Barbara Rocha and her son, Alex Aaron Rocha, were pronounced dead, as reported by KDFW.
Raul Rocha, the adult son of Barbara Rocha, shared with the station that he received a phone call from his father on Sunday morning, informing him of the heartbreaking event.
“I could never have foreseen this happening to me. Losing my mom was unimaginable. She didn’t deserve this,” he expressed. “She was incredibly kind and always cared for us and everyone around her.”
Another brother, who was also in the house at the time, fortunately escaped injury. Raul recounted his brother’s experience, saying that after hearing the crash, he rushed to the room to find his younger brother “screaming and my mom praying.”
“And that’s what I have stuck in the back of my head right now my little brother screaming, and my mom praying,” Raul Rocha said.
A GoFundMe set to help the family with funeral and living expenses, since their home was essentially destroyed, said that Yates, a natural born American citizen, was drunk, but police made no mention of intoxication and she was not charged with anything relating to intoxication.
According to Law&Crime, she was given a bond of less than $15,000 and bonded out on Tuesday.
