Last Updated on March 2, 2017 by CCAR Staff
FULLERTON — They died exactly as they lived — together.
On Tuesday night, Oscar Tinoco, 23, volunteered to pick up his 17-year-old stepsister, Valeria Tinoco, from soccer practice near Rosecrans Avenue and Beach Boulevard in La Mirada.
That was nothing unusual. The pair was inseparable. Oscar doted on Valeria, taking her to school events, movies and shopping, longtime family friend Benjamin Cano said Wednesday night.
However, on the way home to La Habra from the soccer field, tragedy struck.
Oscar apparently lost control of his 2006 Lexus near the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and Camino Loma in Fullerton around 8:45 p.m., police said Tuesday. The car slammed into a tree, killing both Oscar and Valeria. The Orange County coroner identified the crash victims Wednesday.
“He was going a little too fast,” Cano said Wednesday night.
The deaths of the siblings are the second and third losses for their parents, Maria and Fidencio Tinoco of La Habra.
In 2006, the couple’s oldest son, Marine Lance Cpl. Hugo Lopez, 20, was killed after a roadside bomb exploded close to the Humvee he was riding in near Rawah, Iraq.
“They are inconsolable,” Cano said. “They are just trying to pick up the pieces and I’m reliving a nightmare. Hugo was my best friend.”
“There are no words to describe the pain and hurt,” Fidencio Tinoco said in Spanish through Cano. “I went through this the first time with Hugo’s death. At that time the pain was enormous, but me and wife had Oscar and Valeria to give us hope and support and something to keep pushing forward.
“But now I have no idea how we will be able to gather the strength and willpower to move forward.”
Oscar tried to fill the hole in his parents’ heart after Hugo’s death. He was working at a warehouse in Fullerton while looking for a job as a pharmacy technician.
Sometimes Oscar sold homemade tamales in his neighborhood to earn extra money for his family.
“He knew he had to step up to be the strength for his mother and father,” Cano said. “He had the biggest heart.”
Valeria was a vivacious senior at La Habra High School who loved soccer.
She was looking forward to graduation and Tuesday before the crash she had excitedly talked to her mom about what she planned to wear to the upcoming prom, according to Cano.
“She wanted to pick out just the right dress and shoes,” he said. “It’s a life cut too short.”
A photo from La Habra High posted on Twitter on Wednesday showed a banner covered in notes that read, “Dearest Valeria, our hearts and thoughts are with you.”
