EN MEMORIA DE VICTORIA A, GARCIA

It saddens me to share the news that my dear cousin Victoria Angeles Garcia lost her life at the young age of 17 on  September 28th. Victoria was a beautiful young girl with a happy spirit, and her life was cut short.  Victoria’s death was entirely preventable. Victoria's death is still under investigation. The only information we have at this time is that a 21 year old friend of Victoria is currently being held in police custody and may have played a role in her death because he failed to contact emergency services in a timely manner. I am heartbroken that Victoria left the Garcia family too soon and we are devastated and wish we all could have done more for her. 

Those who knew Victoria may be aware that she was an at-risk youth who struggled with mental health and addiction. I did, however, see her desire to change and make a better life for herself time and time again. There were times where our family did not know how to best support her, but we did our best. My aunt, Rosalba Garcia, was fighting with the Juvenile court system and asked for support before it was too late. Now Victoria is gone and we cannot bring her back, but we want to talk about our experience to bring awareness to other families, and especially to the Juvenile court systems, that are failing our youth. 

Our family is facing an extremely difficult time now as we come to terms  with the death of one of our youngest family members. We humbly ask for assistance with her funeral expenses so we may lay Victoria to rest. We also ask that you take a moment out of your day to reach out to a young person in your community. Our youth need our support and we are failing them time and time again.