SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. — The mother of a UC Davis student said she was waiting to hear from her daughter that she made it home safe Friday morning. But the message never came.
“The last thing she said was, 'Mommy, don’t worry. I’ll message when I get home,'” said Joanne Ventura.
Her daughter, Margarette Ventura, was one of three UC Davis students killed in a chain reaction crash along Highway 99 involving a suspected DUI driver.
Joanne arrived in Sacramento Tuesday to collect her daughter's belongings.
“I’m so heartbroken. It feels like she’s just here taking a vacation,” said Joanne.
Margarette and her friends, Minkyu Geon and Codi Orland, were on their way home to UC Davis when investigators say they were hit by a DUI driver on Highway 99 in Manteca.
Her boyfriend of over a year, Patrick Hidalgo, went to the crash site when he saw Margarette’s location was no longer moving along the highway.
“It really hurts when you tell someone, 'Call me when you get home' and then you never get that call,” said Hidalgo.
Margarette was a sophomore at UC Davis and was living in Virginia Beach before college. She planned to be a pediatrician and was actively working in the medical community.
“Part of a student run clinic here at UC Davis. She’s accumulated so much health care experience. She’s done an internship at Sutter here in Davis, and she was actually supposed to start an externship for a medical assistants program,” said Hidalgo.
Her family walked into her apartment for the first time since her death Tuesday, overcome with grief and emotion.
Her cousin, Jenica Hacinas, found comfort in discovering a birthday card in the apartment that she sent back in July to Margarette.
“Happy 20th birthday, I can’t believe it’s your one-year anniversary in California. I am so proud of you and all you accomplished,” said Hacinas in the card.
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