A Florida family is mourning the loss of their youngest daughter in a tragic car crash. The details around the crash are still unknown, but the car ended up in a canal in Cooper City with the driver tragically stuck inside. Authorities moved quickly to try to get the car out, but it was too late.
Even though the driver was dead, her boyfriend in the passenger seat survived and was able to alert her family to the crash. The family identified the young woman thanks to the tattoo she and her mother shared, something they had only recently gotten.
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The young woman's car was found in a canal.
The Broward County Sheriff’s office released a news statement with details of the crash.
“At approximately 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2, Broward County Regional Communications received a report of a car in a canal,” the news release began. “For reasons unknown, the driver of the vehicle veered in a northwesterly direction, struck a raised concrete sidewalk, struck a concrete wall and became airborne before landing in the C-11 canal. The vehicle became submerged.” Authorities identified the driver of the car as 23-year-old Caitlynn Heron.
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Heron was evidently unable to free herself from the car.
Heron was driving the car, and her boyfriend was riding in the passenger’s seat. According to reports, he was able to free himself from the car, but unfortunately Heron was unable to do the same. She died trapped in the water.
“I don’t know all the circumstances of exactly what unfolded, the nuts and bolts of it was happening inside that vehicle, but I do know that they pronounced her deceased in the water,” BSO spokesperson Carey Codd told WSVN.
The tattoo she shared with her mother helped to identify her body.
Heron’s mother, Blanche Pastore, spoke with reporters about her loss.
“We got a phone call because her boyfriend was in the car and his mom called my other daughter, and my daughter called me, and they identified her by our matching tattoos,” Pastore told WTVJ. She explained that the “222” are angel numbers that signify prosperity and guardians.
Speaking to WFOR, Pastore explained, “We had put it off for a couple of years and I’m so glad that we finally did it a couple of months ago because I have something, something that’s on me.”
Her family is heavily mourning the loss.
“We’re Irish twins. We’re 11 months apart. So, for 12 days out of the year, we were the same age, so we were super close. I mean, that was my other half, I’ll never be a whole person again,” the woman’s sister, Brianna Heron, told WFOR.
Her father, Frank Heron told the outlet he’ll “never be the same.” He also said that his daughter was one of the “greatest souls on the planet. A loving young woman who would help anybody, such a sweetheart.”
The family started a GoFundMe to help in their time of need.
“I wish I could give everything I have to get her back,” wrote Pastore. The family held a candlelight vigil at Caitlynn’s favorite restaurant to honor her life.
Pastore started a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of cremation. She shared that the donations help the family feel “such comfort that with every donation I feel Caitlynn has not been forgotten!”
