Woman who lost 7 relatives ends GoFundMe campaign after raising $300K
A North Las Vegas mother who lost seven relatives in a weekend crash has disabled her GoFundMe page after it raised more than $300,000 for funeral costs.
According to Erlinda Zacarias’ page on the fundraising site, she has reached her goal. A message from the woman — who lost four children, two stepsons and her younger brother in the crash — was added to the page on Wednesday in Spanish and English.
It states: “Thank you all for your immense help for being there in my time of need thank you to the community i have no words only god will give me strength and resignation.”
She raised the funds to bury Fernando Yeshua Mejia, 5; Adrian Zacarias, 10; Lluvia Daylenn Zacarias, 13; Bryan Axel Zacarias, 15; Gabriel Mejia-Barrera, 23; David Mejia-Barrera, 25; and Jose Zacarias-Caldera, 35.
The children and Zacarias-Caldera will be laid to rest on Feb. 21 in Las Vegas, she said, while the bodies of the Mejia-Barrera brothers would be repatriated to Mexico.
All seven relatives lived with Erlinda Zacarias and her husband, Jesus Mejia-Santana. They were killed after a motorist blew through a red light at about 3:15 p.m. Saturday at Cheyenne Avenue and Commerce Street, and slammed into their minivan.
The North Las Vegas Police Department said Gary Dean Robinson, 59, had accelerated his Dodge Challenger to more than 100 mph before the crash occurred.
He and his passenger, Tanaga Ravel Miller, 46, also were killed in what is considered the deadliest crash in Nevada since the state began keeping track in 1991.
Mejia-Santana lost four biological children.
More than 6,700 donations were made after the fundraiser went live on Sunday.
Eight donors gave the highest donation of $1,000, and three of them did so anonymously, according to the GoFundMe page.
The victims had just left a park and were heading to meet Erlinda Zacarias and her husband for lunch when tragedy struck, the mother said.
“We’re never going to see them again, or watch them grow, or have grandchildren,” she said in Spanish during an interview on Monday at the family’s home. “Our world is over.”
A separate fundraiser for a motorist injured in a third vehicle had raised more than $13,000 as of Wednesday evening.
Tiffani May’s relatives wrote on a GoFundMe page that their goal was to raise $80,000 for medical expenses expected during a long recovery period.
May, whose vehicle was hit by the minivan after the Challenger plowed into it, was rushed to University Medical Center with serious injuries, police said.
Tameka Henry, an organizer of the fundraiser, wrote on Tuesday that her cousin’s prognosis had improved and that she was no longer in the intensive care unit.
“Thank you all for your kindness,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.
