On December 20, 2023, only one day before his 12th birthday, Travis Wolfe was hit by a car.
The driver, Endrina Bracho, was going 70+ mph on the wrong side of the road - Bracho is an illegal migrant from Venezuela.
Travis and five others, including his parents and a woman with her two kids, were rushed to the hospital after the head-on collision.
Travis had been on life support at the Children's Hospital since, but he never woke up.
Travis passed away on March 6.
His parents were left with broken wrists, broken ribs, and a broken sternum, among other injuries, but the loss of their son was the worst pain of all.
This never should have happened.
Andrea DeWeese / GoFundMe
On the night of the accident, Sgt. Scott Schnurbusch from the Hazelwood Police Department said, "I saw two vehicles with heavy damage to both front ends. Airbags deployed on multiple vehicles."
Court documents state, "the defendant [Bracho] is here illegally from Venezuela" and is facing "involuntary manslaughter in the first degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, two counts of endangering a child in the first degree, and one count of operating a vehicle without a valid license."
Bracho is now in custody and awaiting trial. She'll remain on a $500,000 cash-only bond, with a bond reduction hearing scheduled for April 8.
Bracho's children were also in the car when she hit the Wolfe family. Her kids are now with their father.
Sgt. Schnurbusch said Bracho being in the country illegally did not "play a part in our investigation," but it made it difficult to identify the parties.
It was just difficult identifying all parties involved because we didn't have documentation or identifications in the vehicle to try to figure out who the two juveniles and the suspect were.
Eyewitnesses were able to help police by giving their statements of what they saw - Bracho driving in the wrong lane, going fast, and hitting the Wolfe family's Jeep.
1,700 feet is quite a big distance to travel at over 70 miles an hour on a 40-mile posted road. That's a long way to travel in the wrong direction and not realize.
The Hazelwood police can only hope that Bracho's arrest will provide a sense of closure for Travis' family.
The Wolfe family started a GoFundMe to help cover medical expenses; if you wish to contribute, you can do so by clicking here.
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