MLK crash kills five, including two Tampa children ages nine and ten

Thursday, October 27, two thousand sixteen 9:23am

TAMPA — Marianela Murillo spent the last evening of her life in one of her beloved places.

Related News/Archive

The 39-year-old Colombian immigrant attended services Wednesday at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall off E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The congregation pleaded 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 beloved 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 demonstrated off his metallic blue Volkswagen Golf with the custom-built rims and tricked-out suspension, then left with a friend in his passenger seat.

Soon after, the Volkswagen and Toyota collided on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard Jr. in one of the most horrific local crashes in latest memory.

Murillo and two of her children, Maria, Ten, 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 fifty mph speed limit, but investigators were still working to determine his actual speed, said a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, Sgt. Steve Gaskins.

Albeit 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 Cavern, and crossed the grassy median.

Murillo was heading east and was about to turn into her apartment elaborate when the Volks&bashful;wagen collided almost 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 hubby 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 inwards 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 wifey 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 duo has lived in the United States for about fifteen years and that Marianela became a citizen just a few months ago.

Her passion was her church and knocking on strangers’ doors to tell them about God’s promise to create a paradise on earth. She loved to cook and was known for her pupusa, a tortilla wedged with beans, meat and cheese.

The kids were sweet, blessed and loving, like their mother, Santana said.

Maria and John attended Mango Elementary, said Hillsborough School District spokeswoman Tanya Arja. Maria was in fifth grade, and John was in fourth, Arja said.

Distress counselors were at the school Thursday to help students and staff. The students voiced themselves in sympathy cards.

“I was howling,” one classmate wrote. “They were to youthful to die.”

Cortes was proud of his high-performance Volkswagen. The car predominated his social media accounts.

Brown-haired and bespectacled, Cortes drove the VW to area meet-ups where he collective his love for automobiles, said local car enthusiast Sean Le&timid;Roux.

LeRoux, twenty four , of Clearwater said Cortes was known to be on the “aesthetics” side of the car community. His car wasn’t meant to be a full-blown race car, but it was souped up and modified. LeRoux said Cortes wasn’t known to race other drivers.

Meets-ups like the one he attended Wednesday were a time to demonstrate off modifications: custom-built rims, grills, suspensions.

“You suspend out,” said Dakota Hull, 21, of Valrico.

On Wednesday night, Hull stayed home sick while Cortes went to a routine meet-up with friends. It was the very first time most of them had met Jolie Bartolome. She was a two thousand fifteen graduate of Gulf Breeze High School in the Panhandle and an avid dancer, according to a memorial page on Facebook.

When Hull got the call about the crash, he rushed to the scene. He eyed Cortes’ car from the roadside, slightly recognizable.

Friends wrote on the group’s Facebook page that Cortes would forever be missed. They also mourned Murillo and her children.

“Family members of Cortes and Bartolome could not be reached for comment.

Santana said her friend would forgive Cortes for whatever role his deeds played in the crash. So will her friends and family.

“Their family is suffering the same way Marianela’s family is suffering,” Santana said. “And I hope they find peace.”

Times staff writer Paul Guzzo and senior researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

MLK crash kills five, including two Tampa children ages nine and Ten, Tampa Bay Times

MLK crash kills five, including two Tampa children ages nine and ten

Thursday, October 27, two thousand sixteen 9:23am

TAMPA — Marianela Murillo spent the last evening of her life in one of her dearest places.

Related News/Archive

The 39-year-old Colombian immigrant attended services Wednesday at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall off E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The congregation pleaded 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 dearest 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 demonstrated off his metallic blue Volkswagen Golf with the custom-made rims and tricked-out suspension, then left with a friend in his passenger seat.

Soon after, the Volkswagen and Toyota collided on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard Jr. in one of the most horrific local crashes in latest memory.

Murillo and two of her children, Maria, Ten, 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 fifty mph speed limit, but investigators were still working to determine his actual speed, said a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, Sgt. Steve Gaskins.

Albeit 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 Hallway, and crossed the grassy median.

Murillo was heading east and was about to turn into her apartment sophisticated when the Volks&timid;wagen collided almost 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 spouse 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 inwards 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 wifey 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 duo has lived in the United States for about fifteen years and that Marianela became a citizen just a few months ago.

Her passion was her church and knocking on strangers’ doors to tell them about God’s promise to create a paradise on earth. She loved to cook and was known for her pupusa, a tortilla plunged with beans, meat and cheese.

The kids were sweet, glad and loving, like their mother, Santana said.

Maria and John attended Mango Elementary, said Hillsborough School District spokeswoman Tanya Arja. Maria was in fifth grade, and John was in fourth, Arja said.

Distress counselors were at the school Thursday to help students and staff. The students voiced themselves in sympathy cards.

“I was sobbing,” one classmate wrote. “They were to youthful to die.”

Cortes was proud of his high-performance Volkswagen. The car predominated his social media accounts.

Brown-haired and bespectacled, Cortes drove the VW to area meet-ups where he collective his love for automobiles, said local car enthusiast Sean Le&timid;Roux.

LeRoux, twenty four , of Clearwater said Cortes was known to be on the “aesthetics” side of the car community. His car wasn’t meant to be a full-blown race car, but it was souped up and modified. LeRoux said Cortes wasn’t known to race other drivers.

Meets-ups like the one he attended Wednesday were a time to demonstrate off modifications: custom-made rims, grills, suspensions.

“You drape out,” said Dakota Hull, 21, of Valrico.

On Wednesday night, Hull stayed home sick while Cortes went to a routine meet-up with friends. It was the very first time most of them had met Jolie Bartolome. She was a two thousand fifteen graduate of Gulf Breeze High School in the Panhandle and an avid dancer, according to a memorial page on Facebook.

When Hull got the call about the crash, he rushed to the scene. He eyed Cortes’ car from the roadside, hardly recognizable.

Friends wrote on the group’s Facebook page that Cortes would forever be missed. They also mourned Murillo and her children.

“Family members of Cortes and Bartolome could not be reached for comment.

Santana said her friend would forgive Cortes for whatever role his deeds played in the crash. So will her friends and family.

“Their family is suffering the same way Marianela’s family is suffering,” Santana said. “And I hope they find peace.”

Times staff writer Paul Guzzo and senior researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

MLK crash kills five, including two Tampa children ages nine and Ten, Tampa Bay Times

MLK crash kills five, including two Tampa children ages nine and ten

Thursday, October 27, two thousand sixteen 9:23am

TAMPA — Marianela Murillo spent the last evening of her life in one of her beloved places.

Related News/Archive

The 39-year-old Colombian immigrant attended services Wednesday at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall off E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The congregation pleaded 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 dearest 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 displayed off his metallic blue Volkswagen Golf with the custom-built rims and tricked-out suspension, then left with a friend in his passenger seat.

Soon after, the Volkswagen and Toyota collided on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard Jr. in one of the most horrific local crashes in latest memory.

Murillo and two of her children, Maria, Ten, 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 fifty mph speed limit, but investigators were still working to determine his actual speed, said a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, Sgt. Steve Gaskins.

Albeit 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 Hallway, and crossed the grassy median.

Murillo was heading east and was about to turn into her apartment elaborate when the Volks&timid;wagen collided almost 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 spouse 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 inwards 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 wifey 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 duo has lived in the United States for about fifteen years and that Marianela became a citizen just a few months ago.

Her passion was her church and knocking on strangers’ doors to tell them about God’s promise to create a paradise on earth. She loved to cook and was known for her pupusa, a tortilla rammed with beans, meat and cheese.

The kids were sweet, blessed and loving, like their mother, Santana said.

Maria and John attended Mango Elementary, said Hillsborough School District spokeswoman Tanya Arja. Maria was in fifth grade, and John was in fourth, Arja said.

Distress counselors were at the school Thursday to help students and staff. The students voiced themselves in sympathy cards.

“I was sobbing,” one classmate wrote. “They were to youthfull to die.”

Cortes was proud of his high-performance Volkswagen. The car predominated his social media accounts.

Brown-haired and bespectacled, Cortes drove the VW to area meet-ups where he collective his love for automobiles, said local car enthusiast Sean Le&timid;Roux.

LeRoux, twenty four , of Clearwater said Cortes was known to be on the “aesthetics” side of the car community. His car wasn’t meant to be a full-blown race car, but it was souped up and modified. LeRoux said Cortes wasn’t known to race other drivers.

Meets-ups like the one he attended Wednesday were a time to display off modifications: custom-made rims, grills, suspensions.

“You string up out,” said Dakota Hull, 21, of Valrico.

On Wednesday night, Hull stayed home sick while Cortes went to a routine meet-up with friends. It was the very first time most of them had met Jolie Bartolome. She was a two thousand fifteen graduate of Gulf Breeze High School in the Panhandle and an avid dancer, according to a memorial page on Facebook.

When Hull got the call about the crash, he rushed to the scene. He witnessed Cortes’ car from the roadside, slightly recognizable.

Friends wrote on the group’s Facebook page that Cortes would forever be missed. They also mourned Murillo and her children.

“Family members of Cortes and Bartolome could not be reached for comment.

Santana said her friend would forgive Cortes for whatever role his deeds played in the crash. So will her friends and family.

“Their family is suffering the same way Marianela’s family is suffering,” Santana said. “And I hope they find peace.”

Times staff writer Paul Guzzo and senior researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

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