Mother heartbroken after losing teen daughter in street-racing crash

CLOVERDALE, Calif. (KTVU) -- The mother of a teenage girl killed during a weekend street race in rural Sonoma County on Monday said her daughter was her "todo," her everything.

Silvia Contreras fought back tears talking about her daughter, 16-year old Angelica Contreras. 

"She was a good child. She had dreams like any other one," Contreras said with her daughter Melissa translating. "She wanted to be a criminal investigator. And what happened stopped all of those dreams that she had."

The California Highway Patrol said Angelica Contreras was on a rural road outside of Cloverdale along the banks of the Russian River Friday night. She was there with nine friends who were participating in, watching, and acting as lookout for a street race. 

Contreras was watching the race when the cars went out of control. One of them hit Contreras, capitulating her 150 feet to the riverbed below. Her body was found by a passerby the next morning.

"They did not know that she was missing," said friend, Savannah Hemphill. "It was sad." 

Hemphill said she arrived after the crash. "It was really chaotic down here."

Whether Contreras was forgotten in the chaos, or whether the teenagers involved were afraid to say she was missing will be part of the CHP investigation.

"If you're a new driver, 16 or 17 years old, pushing your vehicle to its limits, you don't have the experience to do that," explained CHP Officer Jon Sloat. "I think that's probably what we're going to find out happened here."

The 17-year old driver of a BMW involved in the crash went to CHP headquarters in Rohnert Park on Monday to be interviewed by investigators with his attorney present. 

The driver of the Volkswagen that hit Contreras was 16-years old. The CHP said it's unclear right now if he had a license, but if he did it was provisional and he should not have had a passenger in the car. Both drivers had passengers.

The Sonoma County Coronor's Officer did an autopsy over the weekend. The results have not been released yet, but the CHP says they show Contreras has severe injuries that likely were not survivable, had she been found earlier. Her death, said Officer Sloat, "could have been instant."

The CHP says it could take weeks before the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office reviews the case for potential felony vehicular manslaughter charges.