Families wait for any word on missing train riders
Thomas WatkinsNorma Haverstock had been sitting in the first car of the Metrolink train that crashed Friday, but she decided to get off at the Chatsworth station to chat with her co-worker, her husband said. The Simi Valley woman got back on the train's last car as it was about to depart.
The first car of the train was by far the most heavily damaged.
"I'm sure if she went back to the first car, she probably wouldn't be alive today," Frank Haverstock said. "It was divine intervention. She was put on that last car for a reason, as far as I'm concerned."
Norma Haverstock, 56, injured her back and suffered bruises and cuts, including a deep gash on her forehead. She was released from a hospital Saturday morning but was as not available to talk Saturday. She has taken the train to work in Burbank for more than 10 years.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jacob Hefter's girlfriend had just gotten a text message from him saying his commuter train had left a San Fernando Valley station and he would soon arrive at his destination in Moorpark.
Three minutes later the Metrolink train Hefter had boarded collided with a freight train heading in the other direction. His family hasn't heard from him since.
"We just have to wait and see and hope he shows up," said Jacob's father, Alan Hefter. He was awaiting word at a San Fernando Valley high school that had been transformed into a makeshift unification center for riders of the train and their families.
He realized his 18-year-old son, a student at California State University, Long Beach, could be in a hospital somewhere. But a fruitless night of calling and searching had turned up no trace.
At one point the family's hopes were raised when authorities said a bus full of survivors would soon arrive at the school. But as the hours passed, no bus arrived.
"We don't have a clue what's going on," Hefter's father said.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the family of Maria Elenea Villalobos, the hardest part was having no idea what happened to the 18-year-old woman after she boarded the Metrolink commuter train involved in the deadly crash.
The woman's uncle Victor Villalobos spent hours Friday night carrying photos to trauma centers around Southern California where scores of crash victims were being treated. She was nowhere to be found.
Around midnight, Villalobos' mother, Veronica Gonzalez, got word that authorities had located the body of a woman they couldn't identify. She quickly went to check and discovered it wasn't her daughter.
"We are just waiting. That's all we can do," she said Saturday.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — After hours of working relentlessly to rescue people from the wreckage of Friday's deadly commuter train crash, dozens of somber-looking law enforcement officers paused briefly to honor one of their own.
Members of the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department stood at attention late Friday night as the body of Officer Spree Desha was carried past them to an ambulance.
Desha, a seven-year veteran of the police department, was among those killed in the crash. She had been returning home to Simi Valley after a day's work as a training officer at her department's downtown headquarters.
Desha, 35, had transferred downtown only a month ago. She previously worked as a patrol officer in the San Fernando Valley.
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Associated Press Writers Terence Chea and Judy Lin contributed to this report.