A bereaved mother claims to have seen angels at the site of a horrific car crash where her daughter lost her life.
Melinda Martinez, 43, believes a ‘blurry figure’ in haunting photos taken by the police shows her child’s spirit.
Her daughter Isabelle Gonzalez, 16, died in a car crassh after she went out with three friends, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.
She got into a car with her friends and Brandon Gomez Hunsperger, 22, who was drunk driving.
The car spun out of control and crashed into a tree, in San Jose, California.
Both Isabella and Brandon, the driver, were pronounced dead at the scene and the two other passengers were rushed to hospital.
In the image captured by the police, there is a faint bright light hovering over the crash site.
Melinda, who works in sales, from San Jose, California, said: ‘When she died I asked the police department for the reports and photos.
‘I wanted to know everything she went through good or bad.
‘They gave me some photos and as we were looking through them I said ‘oh my god, these are angels’.
‘I felt like my daughter was so special that god allowed us to give us that moment.
‘I think if I didn’t see those photos I would not be here today because I wanted to be with her so bad.’
The crash happened on March 15, 2018, after Isabelle asked Melinda if she could go out with some friends.
The next morning, Melinda woke up and noticed that Isabelle wasn’t there and called her school who wrongly said she had turned up.
Melinda said: ‘The school told me that she was there but had missed the first and second periods.
‘They said they couldn’t find her because there was a cheer rally which made sense as she was a cheerleader.
‘When school finished and she still wasn’t home, I called my mom and told her what was going on.
‘She started freaking out and she told me there had been a car accident and a girl and boy died.’
Melinda started contacting different hospitals with no success until she called Regional Medical Center, San Jose, California, who told her to come in.
Once Melinda arrived with her mum, the security took her to an upstairs ward.
She said: ‘I thought, how sad for the parents of the girl I am going to have to identify.
‘We got upstairs and I saw Isabelle’s best friend and I just fell to the floor.
‘The security guard said it was ok because she was alive and I said ‘you don’t understand, if she is alive then my baby is gone’.’
Melinda and her mum then went downstairs and her family were waiting in the reception.
She said her dad and stepdad were the ones to identify Isabelle’s body.
She said: ‘I saw that my dad was talking to a cop and I was looking at him for a reaction.
‘He started walking towards me and I started shouting ‘dad is it her’.
‘He carried on walking towards me and said ‘yes, baby it is her’ and my heart just dropped.
‘I just felt like I needed to be with her on whatever journey she was on.
‘I just wanted to hold her and be with her – I still felt her close to me, I didn’t feel like she was gone.’
Melinda found out that Isabelle had gone out with her best friend, her boyfriend, and a friend of his.
Isabelle was seated in the back passenger seat when the car lost control and crashed into a tree and the driver and Isabelle died at the scene.
It was later reported that the driver, Brandon Gomez Hunsperger was under the influence of alcohol.
Isabelle’s funeral was held on April 3, 2018, and Melinda said it was a ‘beautiful’ ceremony where her cheer team came out to pay their respects.
She said: ‘It was a heart-wrenching day, in my family it is all girls.
‘I have two sisters, my sister has two daughters and I have two daughters.
‘When they started lowering Isabelle’s body into the ground I was a mess.
‘I asked them to open the coffin as I wanted to hold her for one last time.
‘Isabelle was super funny, she had a lot of friends and everyone loved her.
‘When she put on her cheer uniform she lit up the whole world – it was incredible to see her shine like that.’
