Generations of family lost in crash
Tomas and Maribel Negrete lived the American Dream. Two years ago they purchased a home on Black Angus Way in Olivehurst and raised two sons, Eric, 3 and Cesar, 6 months.
He worked for Yuba City Floor Covering. She sold cosmetics, clothing and other merchandise, and was within weeks of opening her own child-care business. They were both from Mexico, met at Yuba College several years ago and married shortly after.
“She was always laughing,” Margarita Santillan of Yuba City said of her cousin, Maribel Negrete. “She was always joking.”
This dream doesn't have a happy ending.
It ended abruptly and violently Saturday night on Highway 70 south of Marysville when an allegedly drunken driver, Bradley Charles Bledsoe, crashed into their vehicle, forcing it to crash into a tree.
The entire family, including Maribel Negrete's parents, Maria Veronica Raya, 63, and Jose Raya, 65, died in the collision.
After striking the Negrete's vehicle, Bledsoe's car hit a van, causing it to spin off the road, according to the California Highway Patrol. The van's driver was not injured.
Bledsoe was arrested Sunday on suspicion of murder. He is tentatively scheduled to be arraigned today at 3 p.m. in Yuba County Superior Court in Marysville.
Bob Criss, assistant fire chief of the Linda Fire Department, responded to the accident scene along with eight other Linda firefighters. He called the situation “traumatic.”
“When we go on any kind of vehicle accident with trauma, it has an effect,” he said. “But when you come upon a vehicle with six people inside, its sickening, to say the least.”
With somber family members gathered at a residence on Tumbleweed Way in Olivehurst to console each other, Santillan remembered her cousin.
Maribel Negrete was a hardworking woman who came to the U.S. 10 years ago and took classes to learn English, Santillan said. Santillan said her cousin wanted a better life.
“She was always active. She was trying to make money,” she said. “She was a hard worker.”
Santillan said Negrete traveled between Olivehurst and Galt to buy clothes and other items to resell them at a local flea market. Negrete was three to four weeks from getting her child-care certificate and was working at a child care center to get experience, she said.
Tomas was also a hard worker, but the quieter of the two, Santillan said.
He arrived in the area when he was about 18 years old, according to older brother, Adan Negrete of Marysville. The family moved onto Black Angus Way two years ago.
Maribel's father, Jose Miguel Raya, came to the U.S. from Mexico 33 years ago. For 20 years he traveled between California and Mexico to see his wife and family after the growing season.
About 10 years ago, he brought his wife, Maria Veronica, and their daughter, Maribel, to the U.S.
The families decided to bury the young couple here in the Yuba-Sutter area, Adan Negrete said. They met here, started their family here and it was best to have them here, he said.
SERVICES
Services for the crash victims will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Seventh and D streets, Marysville.
Appeal-Democrat reporter Daniel Witter can be reached at 749-4712. You may e-mail him at dwitter@appeal-democrat.com. Appeal-Democrat Community Editor Leticia Gutierrez and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
