Poway Family Mourns Son Who Died at Music Festival

The 22-year-old was a student at UC Irvine.

A Poway family is mourning after their son passed away at a music festival.

John Vo, 22, died at the "Beyond Wonderland" rave on March 20 in San Bernardino. His family spoke to NBC 7 about their late son and brother.

John’s brother, Brian, said his brother was always smiling and always having fun.

“He had a huge personality,” Brian told NBC 7.

His family and loved ones miss that big personality.

“I miss him so much,” said John’s father. “My baby.”

John’s father, a doctor, said he is waiting for the medical examiner’s report to figure out how his youngest child died. To his knowledge, his son did not have any pre-existing medical conditions. 

The toxicology report is pending, but authorities say the Poway native went into cardiac arrest after suffering a possible seizure.

John was the youngest of four siblings, all of them doctors. John would have soon followed in their footsteps. After he graduated from Rancho Bernardo High, he went on to UC Irvine and was majoring in biology.

Family members said since John was so close to graduating, the school will give him his degree posthumously.

His other passion was music. Family members told NBC 7 he disk jockeyed under the name “The Doc.”

John used to come home and blast music in the house, his sister Diana said.

Now, she misses the sound of that loud music, she said, and wishes she could turn back the hands of time to hear it again.

“The nights he came home from school, he would play his loud music all
night long, it was so annoying,” said Diana. “And I'd yell at him to turn it down and he was like, okay sorry, Oops, sorry. Now I miss it. I wish he was home.”

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