A San Diego family preparing to lay a family member to rest is having to prepare for another funeral.
Ariel Llerenas, 27, was killed on her way from Texas to pay respects to their cousin who suddenly died last week from a heart attack. Her boyfriend was at the wheel when he fell asleep while on Interstate 10 in Deming, New Mexico, causing a fiery crash.
"I get a call around 4 o'clock in the morning and it's my daughter hysterical and she said they had just been in a car accident and that her sister was under the car," Ariel's mother, Angelica Llerenas, said.
Ariel's sister, Priscilla Chavira, 15, was also in the car.
"I am looking at the road and the car just kind of turns, makes a slight left onto the median and then he tries to bring it back onto the road and the car like spun," Chavira said.
When Chavira got out of the car, she noticed her sister was pinned under the burning SUV.
"I noticed that my sister was about to catch on fire and I didn't know what to do," she said. "I am patting it with my hands. I grabbed a T-shirt that had fallen out the car and I am patting the fire out."
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Ariel was flown to an El Paso Hospital where she died. The family wants her to be remembered for the giving and happy person she was.
"She was just a good person. Mother of two," Angelica Llerenas. "She left behind two small children, ages 7 and 5. We are just devastated with this. They don't know yet."
Ariel's children are in Texas right now with their father. She was a stay-at-home mother.
The family has set a GoFundMe account for her funeral expenses.
