Published in the Newark Star Ledger May 22, 2006
MONTEZ - Vanessa, on May 18, 2006, beloved daughter of Hector Montez and Florinda Linaris, dearest granddaughter of Lillian and Juan Quiles and Marsha and Antonio Linaris. Services will be held on Tuesday, May 23, at 10 a.m. in The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth, N.J. Visitation on Monday 6-8 p.m.
____________________________________________________________
A grieving mother's words
'You know what you did. Step forward and stop being a coward.'
Hearts raging with anger and anguish, parents lay their children to rest Wednesday, May 24, 2006
BY JOE RYAN
Star-Ledger Staff
Florinda Linares hobbled down the church steps, stared into the news cameras and delivered a message to the hit-and-run driver who killed her children.
"You know what you did," said Linares, 27, who leaned on crutches and spoke yesterday in a voice boiling with anger after a funeral service in Elizabeth. "Step forward and stop being a coward."
Then she lowered her tear- stained eyes and left to bury her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.
Linares was crossing St. Georges Avenue at the Linden-Roselle border with her children, Vanessa and Hector Montez, on Thursday night when an unidentified vehicle rammed into them. The children died almost instantly. The driver fled the scene.
About 100 mourners filed into Holy Rosary St. Michael's Church in Elizabeth for yesterday's funeral. The child-sized white coffins lay be fore the altar. The Rev. John Was sell said it was all right to be outraged.
"Anger is an appropriate emotion at this time," he said. "We just don't know who to be angry at."
As they ventured into the street that night, Linares and her children were heading to a Laundromat near their Roselle apartment. She cradled Hector on her left hip and held Vanessa's tiny fingers in her right hand.
The impact of the westbound vehicle knocked the children out of their shoes and left laundry scattered across the roadway.
Investigators are asking people to be on the lookout for a light-colored -- perhaps white -- vehicle with right front-end damage.
Detectives from the Union County Prosecutor's Office and the Roselle Police Department have been canvassing body shops and emergency rooms, looking for the vehicle and driver. They have distributed handbills throughout neighborhoods and combed local businesses and apartments for witnesses.
"They have fliers they are giving out Thursday night as well, all in the hopes that someone has information about how those innocent toddlers were run down," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.
Linares and Hector Montez, her fiancé and the children's father, have made repeated, tearful pleas to the public for help with the investigation.
Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward. Anyone with information can call (908) 245-2000.
During yesterday's funeral, Linares wept in her mother's arms. Montez, 25, stood erect, with red eyes and an unshaven face.
A choir sang hymns in Spanish. Sobs echoed off the church's vaulted ceiling. News cameras clicked.
After the service, pallbearers carried the children away from the altar. An organ played "Amazing Grace." Linares limped slowly behind the caskets.
Outside the church, she spoke of grief.
"I will never, ever be able to be the same," she said. "They ran me over, and they left me bleeding with my kids all over the street."
After the service, the bodies of Vanessa and Hector were placed in a black hearse, and the funeral procession rolled slowly toward Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Iselin.
On the way, mourners passed the accident site, marked with a sprawling shrine of Mylar balloons, candles, stuffed animals and sym pathy cards.
Linares is Jewish, and Rabbi Robin Nafshi met the family at the graveside.
"Florinda and Hector, your pain is beyond expression," she said. "There are moments you will want to scream and scream and never stop screaming."
Montez broke down, buried his face in his hands and wailed. Linares lay sobbing in her sister's arms.
They sat before the two white caskets and a single open grave. The coffins were so small it took the arms of just two men to lower them into the earth.
Nafshi led the family in Kad dish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Then she motioned toward two shovels, leaning on a mound of dirt beside the children's grave.
"Just as they were gently tucked into bed by their parents, we will cover their caskets as an act of loving kindness," Nafshi said.
Montez slowly rose and reached for a shovel. After pausing to weep, he thrust it into the mound and tossed red earth onto the white caskets.
Then Linares struggled to her feet. With crutches under her arms and her sisters at her sides, she grabbed the shovel and moved toward her children's grave.
"We've got to be strong," she said. "We've got to be strong."
____________________________________________________________
Fatal hit-run driver remains at large
Monday, May 22, 2006
Three days after two young children were killed in a hit-and-run while crossing a busy Roselle street with their mother, the driver and car have not been found despite an extensive search, authorities said yesterday.
But investigators said they are chasing down several good tips called in by witnesses who saw the vehicle, which was described as a large white car.
"No one has been charged yet, but we're making progress," said Robert O'Leary, a spokesman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the hit- and-run. "There are a number of good leads we're following up on."
Florinda Linares, 27, of Roselle, was crossing St. Georges Avenue on Thursday night, her 2-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter in tow as the family headed for a neighborhood Laundromat, authorities said.
The driver of one vehicle stopped as they crossed the busy thoroughfare, but a second car plowed into the family, critically in juring Linares' children before speeding off. The children, Hector Montez Jr. and Vanessa Montez died a short time later at local hospitals. Linares was also treated for injuries.
A viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth. A service will take place at the funeral home at 10 a.m. Tuesday, with interment to follow at Mount Lebanon Cemetery.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call CRIMESTOPPERS at (908) 654-TIPS. All calls are confidential.
MONTEZ - Vanessa, on May 18, 2006, beloved daughter of Hector Montez and Florinda Linaris, dearest granddaughter of Lillian and Juan Quiles and Marsha and Antonio Linaris. Services will be held on Tuesday, May 23, at 10 a.m. in The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth, N.J. Visitation on Monday 6-8 p.m.
____________________________________________________________
A grieving mother's words
'You know what you did. Step forward and stop being a coward.'
Hearts raging with anger and anguish, parents lay their children to rest Wednesday, May 24, 2006
BY JOE RYAN
Star-Ledger Staff
Florinda Linares hobbled down the church steps, stared into the news cameras and delivered a message to the hit-and-run driver who killed her children.
"You know what you did," said Linares, 27, who leaned on crutches and spoke yesterday in a voice boiling with anger after a funeral service in Elizabeth. "Step forward and stop being a coward."
Then she lowered her tear- stained eyes and left to bury her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.
Linares was crossing St. Georges Avenue at the Linden-Roselle border with her children, Vanessa and Hector Montez, on Thursday night when an unidentified vehicle rammed into them. The children died almost instantly. The driver fled the scene.
About 100 mourners filed into Holy Rosary St. Michael's Church in Elizabeth for yesterday's funeral. The child-sized white coffins lay be fore the altar. The Rev. John Was sell said it was all right to be outraged.
"Anger is an appropriate emotion at this time," he said. "We just don't know who to be angry at."
As they ventured into the street that night, Linares and her children were heading to a Laundromat near their Roselle apartment. She cradled Hector on her left hip and held Vanessa's tiny fingers in her right hand.
The impact of the westbound vehicle knocked the children out of their shoes and left laundry scattered across the roadway.
Investigators are asking people to be on the lookout for a light-colored -- perhaps white -- vehicle with right front-end damage.
Detectives from the Union County Prosecutor's Office and the Roselle Police Department have been canvassing body shops and emergency rooms, looking for the vehicle and driver. They have distributed handbills throughout neighborhoods and combed local businesses and apartments for witnesses.
"They have fliers they are giving out Thursday night as well, all in the hopes that someone has information about how those innocent toddlers were run down," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.
Linares and Hector Montez, her fiancé and the children's father, have made repeated, tearful pleas to the public for help with the investigation.
Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward. Anyone with information can call (908) 245-2000.
During yesterday's funeral, Linares wept in her mother's arms. Montez, 25, stood erect, with red eyes and an unshaven face.
A choir sang hymns in Spanish. Sobs echoed off the church's vaulted ceiling. News cameras clicked.
After the service, pallbearers carried the children away from the altar. An organ played "Amazing Grace." Linares limped slowly behind the caskets.
Outside the church, she spoke of grief.
"I will never, ever be able to be the same," she said. "They ran me over, and they left me bleeding with my kids all over the street."
After the service, the bodies of Vanessa and Hector were placed in a black hearse, and the funeral procession rolled slowly toward Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Iselin.
On the way, mourners passed the accident site, marked with a sprawling shrine of Mylar balloons, candles, stuffed animals and sym pathy cards.
Linares is Jewish, and Rabbi Robin Nafshi met the family at the graveside.
"Florinda and Hector, your pain is beyond expression," she said. "There are moments you will want to scream and scream and never stop screaming."
Montez broke down, buried his face in his hands and wailed. Linares lay sobbing in her sister's arms.
They sat before the two white caskets and a single open grave. The coffins were so small it took the arms of just two men to lower them into the earth.
Nafshi led the family in Kad dish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Then she motioned toward two shovels, leaning on a mound of dirt beside the children's grave.
"Just as they were gently tucked into bed by their parents, we will cover their caskets as an act of loving kindness," Nafshi said.
Montez slowly rose and reached for a shovel. After pausing to weep, he thrust it into the mound and tossed red earth onto the white caskets.
Then Linares struggled to her feet. With crutches under her arms and her sisters at her sides, she grabbed the shovel and moved toward her children's grave.
"We've got to be strong," she said. "We've got to be strong."
____________________________________________________________
Fatal hit-run driver remains at large
Monday, May 22, 2006
Three days after two young children were killed in a hit-and-run while crossing a busy Roselle street with their mother, the driver and car have not been found despite an extensive search, authorities said yesterday.
But investigators said they are chasing down several good tips called in by witnesses who saw the vehicle, which was described as a large white car.
"No one has been charged yet, but we're making progress," said Robert O'Leary, a spokesman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the hit- and-run. "There are a number of good leads we're following up on."
Florinda Linares, 27, of Roselle, was crossing St. Georges Avenue on Thursday night, her 2-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter in tow as the family headed for a neighborhood Laundromat, authorities said.
The driver of one vehicle stopped as they crossed the busy thoroughfare, but a second car plowed into the family, critically in juring Linares' children before speeding off. The children, Hector Montez Jr. and Vanessa Montez died a short time later at local hospitals. Linares was also treated for injuries.
A viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth. A service will take place at the funeral home at 10 a.m. Tuesday, with interment to follow at Mount Lebanon Cemetery.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call CRIMESTOPPERS at (908) 654-TIPS. All calls are confidential.
Published in the Newark Star Ledger May 22, 2006
MONTEZ - Vanessa, on May 18, 2006, beloved daughter of Hector Montez and Florinda Linaris, dearest granddaughter of Lillian and Juan Quiles and Marsha and Antonio Linaris. Services will be held on Tuesday, May 23, at 10 a.m. in The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth, N.J. Visitation on Monday 6-8 p.m.
____________________________________________________________
A grieving mother's words
'You know what you did. Step forward and stop being a coward.'
Hearts raging with anger and anguish, parents lay their children to rest Wednesday, May 24, 2006
BY JOE RYAN
Star-Ledger Staff
Florinda Linares hobbled down the church steps, stared into the news cameras and delivered a message to the hit-and-run driver who killed her children.
"You know what you did," said Linares, 27, who leaned on crutches and spoke yesterday in a voice boiling with anger after a funeral service in Elizabeth. "Step forward and stop being a coward."
Then she lowered her tear- stained eyes and left to bury her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.
Linares was crossing St. Georges Avenue at the Linden-Roselle border with her children, Vanessa and Hector Montez, on Thursday night when an unidentified vehicle rammed into them. The children died almost instantly. The driver fled the scene.
About 100 mourners filed into Holy Rosary St. Michael's Church in Elizabeth for yesterday's funeral. The child-sized white coffins lay be fore the altar. The Rev. John Was sell said it was all right to be outraged.
"Anger is an appropriate emotion at this time," he said. "We just don't know who to be angry at."
As they ventured into the street that night, Linares and her children were heading to a Laundromat near their Roselle apartment. She cradled Hector on her left hip and held Vanessa's tiny fingers in her right hand.
The impact of the westbound vehicle knocked the children out of their shoes and left laundry scattered across the roadway.
Investigators are asking people to be on the lookout for a light-colored -- perhaps white -- vehicle with right front-end damage.
Detectives from the Union County Prosecutor's Office and the Roselle Police Department have been canvassing body shops and emergency rooms, looking for the vehicle and driver. They have distributed handbills throughout neighborhoods and combed local businesses and apartments for witnesses.
"They have fliers they are giving out Thursday night as well, all in the hopes that someone has information about how those innocent toddlers were run down," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.
Linares and Hector Montez, her fiancé and the children's father, have made repeated, tearful pleas to the public for help with the investigation.
Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward. Anyone with information can call (908) 245-2000.
During yesterday's funeral, Linares wept in her mother's arms. Montez, 25, stood erect, with red eyes and an unshaven face.
A choir sang hymns in Spanish. Sobs echoed off the church's vaulted ceiling. News cameras clicked.
After the service, pallbearers carried the children away from the altar. An organ played "Amazing Grace." Linares limped slowly behind the caskets.
Outside the church, she spoke of grief.
"I will never, ever be able to be the same," she said. "They ran me over, and they left me bleeding with my kids all over the street."
After the service, the bodies of Vanessa and Hector were placed in a black hearse, and the funeral procession rolled slowly toward Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Iselin.
On the way, mourners passed the accident site, marked with a sprawling shrine of Mylar balloons, candles, stuffed animals and sym pathy cards.
Linares is Jewish, and Rabbi Robin Nafshi met the family at the graveside.
"Florinda and Hector, your pain is beyond expression," she said. "There are moments you will want to scream and scream and never stop screaming."
Montez broke down, buried his face in his hands and wailed. Linares lay sobbing in her sister's arms.
They sat before the two white caskets and a single open grave. The coffins were so small it took the arms of just two men to lower them into the earth.
Nafshi led the family in Kad dish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Then she motioned toward two shovels, leaning on a mound of dirt beside the children's grave.
"Just as they were gently tucked into bed by their parents, we will cover their caskets as an act of loving kindness," Nafshi said.
Montez slowly rose and reached for a shovel. After pausing to weep, he thrust it into the mound and tossed red earth onto the white caskets.
Then Linares struggled to her feet. With crutches under her arms and her sisters at her sides, she grabbed the shovel and moved toward her children's grave.
"We've got to be strong," she said. "We've got to be strong."
____________________________________________________________
Fatal hit-run driver remains at large
Monday, May 22, 2006
Three days after two young children were killed in a hit-and-run while crossing a busy Roselle street with their mother, the driver and car have not been found despite an extensive search, authorities said yesterday.
But investigators said they are chasing down several good tips called in by witnesses who saw the vehicle, which was described as a large white car.
"No one has been charged yet, but we're making progress," said Robert O'Leary, a spokesman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the hit- and-run. "There are a number of good leads we're following up on."
Florinda Linares, 27, of Roselle, was crossing St. Georges Avenue on Thursday night, her 2-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter in tow as the family headed for a neighborhood Laundromat, authorities said.
The driver of one vehicle stopped as they crossed the busy thoroughfare, but a second car plowed into the family, critically in juring Linares' children before speeding off. The children, Hector Montez Jr. and Vanessa Montez died a short time later at local hospitals. Linares was also treated for injuries.
A viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth. A service will take place at the funeral home at 10 a.m. Tuesday, with interment to follow at Mount Lebanon Cemetery.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call CRIMESTOPPERS at (908) 654-TIPS. All calls are confidential.
MONTEZ - Vanessa, on May 18, 2006, beloved daughter of Hector Montez and Florinda Linaris, dearest granddaughter of Lillian and Juan Quiles and Marsha and Antonio Linaris. Services will be held on Tuesday, May 23, at 10 a.m. in The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth, N.J. Visitation on Monday 6-8 p.m.
____________________________________________________________
A grieving mother's words
'You know what you did. Step forward and stop being a coward.'
Hearts raging with anger and anguish, parents lay their children to rest Wednesday, May 24, 2006
BY JOE RYAN
Star-Ledger Staff
Florinda Linares hobbled down the church steps, stared into the news cameras and delivered a message to the hit-and-run driver who killed her children.
"You know what you did," said Linares, 27, who leaned on crutches and spoke yesterday in a voice boiling with anger after a funeral service in Elizabeth. "Step forward and stop being a coward."
Then she lowered her tear- stained eyes and left to bury her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.
Linares was crossing St. Georges Avenue at the Linden-Roselle border with her children, Vanessa and Hector Montez, on Thursday night when an unidentified vehicle rammed into them. The children died almost instantly. The driver fled the scene.
About 100 mourners filed into Holy Rosary St. Michael's Church in Elizabeth for yesterday's funeral. The child-sized white coffins lay be fore the altar. The Rev. John Was sell said it was all right to be outraged.
"Anger is an appropriate emotion at this time," he said. "We just don't know who to be angry at."
As they ventured into the street that night, Linares and her children were heading to a Laundromat near their Roselle apartment. She cradled Hector on her left hip and held Vanessa's tiny fingers in her right hand.
The impact of the westbound vehicle knocked the children out of their shoes and left laundry scattered across the roadway.
Investigators are asking people to be on the lookout for a light-colored -- perhaps white -- vehicle with right front-end damage.
Detectives from the Union County Prosecutor's Office and the Roselle Police Department have been canvassing body shops and emergency rooms, looking for the vehicle and driver. They have distributed handbills throughout neighborhoods and combed local businesses and apartments for witnesses.
"They have fliers they are giving out Thursday night as well, all in the hopes that someone has information about how those innocent toddlers were run down," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.
Linares and Hector Montez, her fiancé and the children's father, have made repeated, tearful pleas to the public for help with the investigation.
Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward. Anyone with information can call (908) 245-2000.
During yesterday's funeral, Linares wept in her mother's arms. Montez, 25, stood erect, with red eyes and an unshaven face.
A choir sang hymns in Spanish. Sobs echoed off the church's vaulted ceiling. News cameras clicked.
After the service, pallbearers carried the children away from the altar. An organ played "Amazing Grace." Linares limped slowly behind the caskets.
Outside the church, she spoke of grief.
"I will never, ever be able to be the same," she said. "They ran me over, and they left me bleeding with my kids all over the street."
After the service, the bodies of Vanessa and Hector were placed in a black hearse, and the funeral procession rolled slowly toward Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Iselin.
On the way, mourners passed the accident site, marked with a sprawling shrine of Mylar balloons, candles, stuffed animals and sym pathy cards.
Linares is Jewish, and Rabbi Robin Nafshi met the family at the graveside.
"Florinda and Hector, your pain is beyond expression," she said. "There are moments you will want to scream and scream and never stop screaming."
Montez broke down, buried his face in his hands and wailed. Linares lay sobbing in her sister's arms.
They sat before the two white caskets and a single open grave. The coffins were so small it took the arms of just two men to lower them into the earth.
Nafshi led the family in Kad dish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Then she motioned toward two shovels, leaning on a mound of dirt beside the children's grave.
"Just as they were gently tucked into bed by their parents, we will cover their caskets as an act of loving kindness," Nafshi said.
Montez slowly rose and reached for a shovel. After pausing to weep, he thrust it into the mound and tossed red earth onto the white caskets.
Then Linares struggled to her feet. With crutches under her arms and her sisters at her sides, she grabbed the shovel and moved toward her children's grave.
"We've got to be strong," she said. "We've got to be strong."
____________________________________________________________
Fatal hit-run driver remains at large
Monday, May 22, 2006
Three days after two young children were killed in a hit-and-run while crossing a busy Roselle street with their mother, the driver and car have not been found despite an extensive search, authorities said yesterday.
But investigators said they are chasing down several good tips called in by witnesses who saw the vehicle, which was described as a large white car.
"No one has been charged yet, but we're making progress," said Robert O'Leary, a spokesman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the hit- and-run. "There are a number of good leads we're following up on."
Florinda Linares, 27, of Roselle, was crossing St. Georges Avenue on Thursday night, her 2-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter in tow as the family headed for a neighborhood Laundromat, authorities said.
The driver of one vehicle stopped as they crossed the busy thoroughfare, but a second car plowed into the family, critically in juring Linares' children before speeding off. The children, Hector Montez Jr. and Vanessa Montez died a short time later at local hospitals. Linares was also treated for injuries.
A viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at The Nesbitt Funeral Home, 165 Madison Ave., Elizabeth. A service will take place at the funeral home at 10 a.m. Tuesday, with interment to follow at Mount Lebanon Cemetery.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call CRIMESTOPPERS at (908) 654-TIPS. All calls are confidential.
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