Family Torn Apart by Drunk Driver
In April 2014, 17-year-old friends, Caroline Agreda and Anapaula Saldana, were in a fender-bender. After they stepped out of their car, a Good Samaritan, 45-year-old Eduardo Hernandez, stopped on the side of the road to help them. A car being driven by Christopher Masferrer, a Marine Corps veteran, plowed into them as they stood on the side of the road. All three were killed on impact.
Masferrer, now 33 and charged with three counts of DUI manslaughter, was recently convicted in Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch’s courtroom. His sentence: 15 years in prison, followed by eight years of parole and the loss of driving privileges for the rest of his life.
In October, after two and a half painful years, Agreda’s sister, Jackeline Gonzalez, read the following statement in court:
“I was 13 years old when my little sister was born. It was one of the happiest memories in my life to find out that I was going to be big sister. I didn’t like being an only child and always wanted to have a sibling relationship – the unbreakable bond, a confidant, and my protector. That’s what Caroline was to me.
She was an important part of my life – my world revolved around her so much so that I even passed up on many opportunities and scholarships to attend college out of state because I couldn’t stand being without her.
Life is still a blur to me, I live in disbelief – I can’t even say my sister’s name without getting emotional. It’s been two-and-a-half years, and you would think that it would get easier, but instead it only gets more difficult. To know that with each passing year, it’s another year without her – without her contagious laugh, her stories, and her dreams. There was not a single day that I wouldn’t talk to her or receive a text message from her. Sometimes I stare at my phone in hopes that I would receive a message from her, but then the dull reality sinks.
On October 16, my sister would have been 20-years-old and a sophomore in college. Instead of celebrating, every year I panic as the day approaches and a sense of sorrow takes over. I can honestly say that I no longer look forward to celebrating birthdays and holidays – they are no longer happy times.
Masferrer has shattered my family – we will never be the same. He has taken a part of our heart and replaced it with emptiness that will never be filled. My mother has suffered psychological trauma, as she lived with my sister and now she lives alone with only memories of what was. As a result of his selfish actions, my mother had to move out of our childhood home because the house wasn’t the same without Caroline’s energy. Her now empty room was too much to bear. Her soccer and bowling trophies, her certificates, and pictures were at a standstill and would no longer grow in size.
My father was not only mentally affected, but physically as well. He is diabetic and had his toe amputated as a result of depression and loss of appetite – all caused by the pain and agony of losing his little girl. He was too delicate to even fly to attend his own daughter’s funeral – something that no loving father should have to endure. He still is not accepting of the fact that his daughter is gone.
I grieve for my family, along with the other two families affected and most of all for my two daughters, who will grow up without truly knowing how much their aunt loved them. They will never have cousins to play with, they will never have their aunt attend their recitals or honor roll ceremonies.
You shouldn’t have to explain the meaning of death to your 4-year-old daughter, or why her godmother or “Titi” is never coming back. Till this day on every birthday since the death of my sister, my daughter has one wish and one wish only – she wishes for her “Titi” to come back. They have had to grow up seeing their mother cry because she could no longer be strong; he has broken me and made me weak in front of my children.
As for myself, there are countless times I wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares. I had to leave my career because my mind wasn’t sharp anymore. I would go blank and could no longer retain information; my majority of the day was consumed with thoughts of how something like this could happen. You hear it in the news but you never in a million years think something like this could happen to you.
This was a purely selfish act – a disregard for others. Three innocent people were killed that day, and nothing could bring them back. We shouldn’t be here today. Except we are because of one person’s action that could have been avoided.”