'Their happiness will never be forgotten': Des Plaines family grieves crash victims
A tightly knit Des Plaines family is grieving the tragic loss of three of its members in a two-vehicle crash Sunday morning in Mount Prospect.
Killed in the crash were 58-year-old Francisco Flores Rodriguez, his 59-year-old wife, Georgina Perez Gomez, and their 31-year-old son, Francisco Javier Flores Perez, whom family called Pancho.
Mount Prospect police said the three were in a Honda sedan driving south out of a shopping center at about 7:45 a.m., when it was struck by a Ford SUV at Rand and Mount Prospect roads.
The unidentified man driving the SUV suffered minor injuries, police said.
Danfer Flores, the nephew and cousin of the deceased family members, said he grew up so close to them that it feels like he's lost his second parents and the closest thing to a brother he had.
"My cousin was always with me," Flores said. "We were never separated."
The two families came from Mexico together and initially lived in the same apartment complex in Arlington Heights, before moving just streets apart in Des Plaines about 20 years ago.
Danfer Flores said his dad and uncle were as close as their sons would become. His cousin Pancho was five years older than him and gave him the same guidance any older brother would.
Flores said he'd come to think of Pancho as indestructible, after his older cousin beat cancer around the age of 10 then survived a crash seven years ago that left him hospitalized for two weeks.
"For him to overcome that was incredible and inspiring to me," he said.
The cousins went fishing together on Saturday. Pancho asked Flores if he could help him out with some things on Sunday, after Pancho and his parents got back from grocery shopping, laundry and church in the morning.
Flores said he started calling his cousin around the time he thought he'd be back, but couldn't reach him and never received a response to his message.
Flores' father came home around noon to report having seen wreckage from a bad accident and covered-up vehicles in Mount Prospect. At that time, no one suspected their family members were involved, Flores said.
It was late Sunday afternoon when authorities confirmed the deaths to Pancho's sister, who had moved to Texas with her husband about two years ago.
Flores has since created the "Francisco, Georgina and Pancho Memorial Fund" to help his surviving cousin with the funeral expenses for her parents and brother. The page had raised more than $14,600 of its $35,000 goal by Tuesday afternoon.
"We are deeply saddened to see that we will no longer have all three of them with us," Flores wrote on the page. "The endless laughs from the stories behind our Uncle Francisco will be remembered. The nonstop love from our Aunt Georgina will be missed. Along with Pancho's determination to overcome all obstacles that helped him previously beat cancer. Their happiness will never be forgotten, and will live through all of us."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
The investigation of the traffic crash continued Monday. The only new details released were that the Cook County medical examiner's office had ruled the three deaths accidental, the result of multiple injuries from a motor vehicle collision.
Anyone who may have seen the crash or can offer more information is asked to call the police department's Major Crash Investigation Team at (847) 870-5656.
• Daily Herald staff writer Jake Griffin contributed to this report.