Two of the street vendors killed when a minivan crashed near a Metro station in North Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 10 have been identified and were being remembered by their families and others for their dedication to their communities.
The women killed in the crash at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards were identified as Teodora Villalobos, 57, and Maria Peck, 73, by the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office.
A third woman also died at the scene; her identity had not been officially released, pending notification of her next of kin.
Villalobos also went by Doris. Her daughters, Karen and Asusena Melissa, told news outlets their mother worked as a street vendor for 20 years.
“There are no words to express the absence that she’s gonna have over my life,” Melissa Villalobos said at a vigil on Wednesday night. “Everything that I do is gonna be for her. Everything that I achieve will be for her, because of every sacrifice that she has (made) for me.”
Villalobos said her mother would give food and water to those who could not afford them.
“If she saw that you were in need, she helped,” Karen Villalobos told KNBC. “If you (tell) her you were hungry, she will feed you. She didn’t care. She didn’t care about materialism. She was the kind of person that she would give whatever she had.”
Peck worked six days a week as a street vendor for the past 11 years, according to a GoFundMe set up to support her children.
“She didn’t work because she had to fill her days; she worked because she genuinely loved what she did and the people she encountered along the way,” the GoFundMe said. “She often said that being part of the community kept her feeling alive. That was Maria. She found joy in working hard, connecting with people, and being there for others.”
Community members stopped by two growing memorials in the area to lay flowers, with many recalling how integral the women and their vendor stands were to the neighborhood and expressing disbelief over the crash.
Two other women were critically injured in the crash.
The driver of the minivan, Ihor Demianenko, 61, of Valley Village was arrested and being held on bail of $6.3 million. Demianenko was booked on suspicion of three counts of murder.
Adrin Nazarian, the Los Angeles City Councilmember who represents the North Hollywood area, worked with a nonprofit to set up a GoFundMe to support the affected vendors and their families.
City News Service contributed to this report.