Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MOM: 'IT'S REALLY JUST OVER...THEY'RE GONE;' ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, 7X DRINK LIMIT, KILLS TEENS

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Rylan Oncale meets his girlfriend, Taliyah Crochet, and two friends just after finishing his first 28-day shift as a deckhand on an oil rig. The teens enjoy a much-needed night out together on dry land, then pile into Rylan’s Kia Rio to head back to Raceland, taking Highway 3090 inland from the coast. As Rylan drives through the 1 a.m. darkness, he spots a set of headlights coming towards him. As the car gets closer, Rylan realizes the oncoming Jeep is driving in his lane. Rylan swerves into the left lane to avoid the wrong-way driver, but the Jeep also moves into the left lane and slams into the teens head-on. The front end of Rylan’s Kia Rio is completely caved in. First responders arrive within minutes, pulling the occupants from the wreckage, but Taliyah is already gone. Rylan is rushed to a hospital, where he also dies of his injuries. The couple’s two friends riding in the back seat also have serious injuries but are stabilized at the hospital. The Jeep Cherokee is occupied only by driver Axel Flores-Cordoza, who is found completely unharmed despite not wearing a seatbelt. Flores-Cordoza, 18, is unlicensed, has open alcohol in his cupholder, and is clearly drunk. The teen voluntarily submits to a breath test that results in a BAC just under .14, equivalent to seven times the .02 legal limit in Louisiana for drivers under 21, and nearly twice the limit for drivers of legal drinking age.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Devin Deen  - Mother of Taliyah Crochet Eric Faddis – Partner at Varner Faddis Elite Legal; Former Felony Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Attorney; Instagram: @e_fad @varnerfaddis; TikTok: @varnerfaddis Sunny Wall - Executive Director, MADD Louisiana; FB: https://www.facebook.com/MADDLouisiana Dr. Jan Gorniak – Medical Examiner, Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner (Las Vegas, NV), Board Certified Forensic Pathologist Sydney Sumner - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A mother says, it's really just over. They're gone. She is talking about two beautiful teens dead. Why? An undocumented immigrant seven times over the legal drinking limit kills the two teens. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. A beautiful young couple killed in a head-on collision. We remember Talia Crochet and Rylan Onkal. I am looking at this beautiful teen girl, Talia's obituary. You know how wrong that is to say a teen girl's obituary? She's beautiful

on the outside but on the inside as well. Interesting the drunk driver is uninjured. does that always happen? But she's dead. Born in Houma, Louisiana, living in Thibodeau, attending the H.L. Bourgeois High School, and more recently studying at the Bayou Kane Education Center. This little girl not only going to school but working at Ross. I imagine in the teen clothing area she was starting a new job at the Waffle House. She's a homebody. Her family loved her and she loved them. Loved spending time with her sisters and taking road trips. Her beloved dog, Xena, and was smitten by her new teen boyfriend, Ryland. Ryland, photoed here also losing

his life. At the end of this obit it says Talia's sweet personality will be missed by all who knew her. Talia's sweet personality will be missed by all who knew her. All I can think about, and I'm sure all of you on the panel and all of you listening, all I can think about are my twins about this age.

They go out one day in their car and they never come home. They come home in a box because an illegal immigrant was seven times over the legal drinking limit. Seven times over. And these two are dead. You know, I found out about the case. I was online and I saw their mother. I saw Talia's mother, Devon, crying and saying to the effect, I can't believe it's all over. They're gone. And I imagined Devin walking into our home and going back to the twins room and it being dead silent, just dead silent. And that feeling in the air when you're all alone, that, that feeling and knowing that's what you're going through every morning, noon and night. Yes. What is it like to go into her room now?

It's gut wrenching. Her dog with her life besides Rylan and working like the dog meant everything to her and she's still in there and I know she notices that Talia's gone. My 13-year-old has been staying alone. That's been hard for her because she's in her sister's room and her sister's gone.

What happened the day you found out about the crash? You know, Dev and Dean, when I was reading the obituary last night, it refers to an accident. It's no accident. It's not. Argue, pick a fight with a funeral home, but it is no accident when somebody drinks and drinks and drinks, then gets their car key, goes to the car, opens it up, gets in, cranks up, reverses and drives out onto the street. That's not an accident. Those are multiple decisions that lead into a horrific crash with

your girl. That's not an accident. When did you learn about the crash? So Talia, she had been at Waffle House. She actually has started her job at Waffle House. Rylan just came in from his first hitch offshore. He was so proud. He was over here and he was only home for two days. He said he was going to pick up Talia at nine o'clock p.m. from Waffle House, him and two of his best friends, Peyton and Devon. And they were going to Fouchon near Grand Isle to go fishing. And I even said, why go so far? There are bayous everywhere around here. And he's like, no, they have a culvert and there's really good fishing there. So they left. In the early hours of the morning, I heard a

really hard knocking. I answered the door. I thought my boyfriend locked them out. I was like, the kids wants to come back from fishing and he locked the door and the state troopers were standing outside. Um, he said, I'm looking for the parents of Talia Crochet. Talia's never been in trouble. Neither has Ryland. They're great kids. And I was just like, why? Like, what did she do? Like what's going on? And he said, that's when he told me, he said, ma'am, Talia has been in an automobile accident and unfortunately she's passed. And I was just like, nah, that's not true. And I was like, where's Rylan? I was waiting for Rylan to walk out and make it okay.

And that's when he told me Rylan had passed also. I was in shock. My boyfriend walked out, thank goodness, because I just kept staring at where her car was normally parked. And then when he handed me her driver's license I knew that it was it was it made it real I was listening to you state earlier I I can't believe it they're just they're gone it's still unbelievable Nancy I miss them so much not just to Leah Ryland worked with me for a while at the machine shop I worked at. So I had one-on-one time with this kid every day.

He was like my son. I have three daughters. Besides my oldest daughter's fiance, he had become my son. I literally saw him every day. Miss Dane, when did you learn what had happened. I mean, when the state trooper comes to your door and, and tells you your daughter has, is gone, has passed. When did you realize what actually happened to your girl? He may have even told us out there. I was so out of it. Honestly, I just remember thinking like she's dead. And when he handed me the driver's license, I just kept tapping it.

And I'm like, oh, my God, she's gone. She's gone. I came in. I the first person first thing I did was wake up my 13 year old to tell her. And then I called Rylan's grandfather in Texas because he was the closest person to him besides his sister here and his friends. And then I had to call and tell my oldest daughter who's pregnant right now. I was so scared to call her. But somewhere along that, I think they did tell us outside that it was a drunk driver. Yeah, it was. Actually, I take it back. I do remember

he did tell us it was a drunk driver that hit them because he said, Rylan was not speeding. They all had their seatbelts on. Like they were doing nothing wrong because that was one of my things. I'm like, well, what happened? Everything comes in bits and pieces. I'm sorry. But yes, he did tell us out there because I remember him specifically saying like we had to cut them out. Like they had their seatbelts on. He wasn't speeding. And I'm like, of course they weren't. Ryland was so careful. He was, he was everyone's protector, including hers. Let me understand. They had their seatbelts on and they were not speeding. So what happened?

He, I don't know. They said, we spoke to the state troopers and they said that they are doing an investigation into whatever they have that was in the other vehicle. I guess shows the speed it was going. They just have to connect it to something to find out. And they said it will be in I guess, shows the speed it was going. They just have to connect it to something to find out. And they said it will be in the report, like what speed he was going. But he had to have been flying because it flew. We would see the crash site yesterday for the first time. And my daughter's car was on the other side of the little ditch. Like it actually flew her car on the other side of the little ditch.

Thank God it was that side of the road, though on the other side of the little ditch. Thank God it was that side of the road though. The other side, the other two boys might not have made it because there was water. So her, the vehicle, the teen's vehicle was on the other side of the road? They said Rylan was in his lane. He, the guy Axel was coming. He went into Rylan's lane. When Rylan went to miss him, he hit him right where Talia was sitting. And it spun the car and flew it, like, off to the side, on the other side of the little culvert area with the little ditch. I couldn't believe it when I saw it in person, how far it was from the road. To Sydney Sumner, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter,

what do we know about the crash itself? Nancy, so what we know about this crash itself? Nancy so what we know about this crash is Ryland is driving is sitting in the passenger seat they have two passengers in the back seat these are two of Ryland's friends they are traveling northbound inland on highway 3090 around 1 a.m. the other driver Axel Flores Cordoza, is driving south towards them. Cordoza pulls into the right lane. He crosses over the middle lane, is driving in Ryland's lane directly towards them. Ryland sees this and attempts to correct.

He swerves into the left lane to avoid this oncoming car. Cordova, head-on, runs into the passenger side front of Talia's car that Ryland is driving. Just imagine driving in the darkness and seeing a pair of headlights coming straight for you, straight for you in the dark of the night. From what we understand, Ryland, in order to try and avoid a head-on collision, swerves into the other lane, the left lane, but then this is him trying to get away from the wrong-way driver. Then the wrong-way driver also corrects, goes back into the left lane and has a head-on collision with the teens. Is that what happened, Sydney Sumner? Yes, Nancy, that is absolutely correct.

And as you can see, the damage to the car was extremely extensive. Ryland and Talia had to be cut out, removed from the car by firefighters. By the time first responders arrived, Talia was already gone. From what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, Sydney Sumner from Crime Online, the driver, the wrong way driver in the middle of the night was seven times the legal limit. Is that correct? That is correct, Nancy. That's what we know from the police report. They have not released the actual number regarding his BAC, but they do tell us that it is nearly seven times the legal limit for an underage drinker. So that would be

somebody under the age of 21. That limit is 0.02. So Cordoza had a BAC of around.14, which is almost double the.08 legal limit for of-age drinkers, 21 and plus. The front end of Ryland's Kia Rio is completely caved in. First responders arrive within minutes, pulling the occupants from the wreckage. But Tulia is already gone. Rylan is rushed to a hospital where he also dies of his injuries. The couple's two friends riding in the backseat also have serious injuries but are stabilized at the hospital. The 18-year-old suspect was driving under the influence when he swerved into the opposite lane, hitting four teens head on. Two beautiful teens dead. Why?

Because an illegal immigrant, an undocumented alien here in the U.S. drives seven times the legal limit and plows into these two while driving on the wrong side of the road in the middle of the night in the complete darkness. Listen. The Jeep Cherokee is only occupied by driver Axel Flores Cordoza, who's found completely unharmed despite not wearing a seatbelt. Flores Cordoza, 18, found completely unharmed despite not wearing a seat belt. Flores Cordoza, 18, is unlicensed, has open alcohol in his cup holder and is clearly drunk. The teen voluntarily submits to a breath test that results in a BAC just under.14, equivalent to seven times the.02 legal limit for drivers under 21 and nearly twice the limit for drivers of legal drinking age. Joining me in addition to this grieving mother, Devin Dean, Eric Faddis with me, veteran trial lawyer, Dr. Jan Gorniak, renowned medical examiner, Sidney Sumner,

investigative crime reporter, and Sonny Wall joining us, the executive director for MAD Louisiana Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Sonny, thank you for being with us. Explain to me how many drinks this guy had to have in order to be seven times the legal limit. Well, first and foremost, Nancy, thanks for bringing light to this under horrible circumstances. The number one thing, and there are many components to that, you know, underage drinking in itself is illegal, period. So that's breaking the law in the beginning. Every minor, we see about 4,300 minors passing away every year due to binge drinking because of alcohol poisoning because the brain is not fully developed to the mid-20s. And therefore, they're not processing it the accurate way.

So I couldn't really give you a specific amount of what this alleged person, impaired person had taken in. But any amount is too much. That's what I can tell you. Generally speaking, the guidelines, and anybody can find these online. It doesn't take a legal scholar to find it. General guidelines within about a span of an hour, it would take about four drinks, four drinks for a man or woman to reach the legal drinking limit. That means under the law, which is insane, you can have four drinks for a man, three drinks for a woman. This is a man. So four drinks and still be under the legal limit of 0.08. Okay. Now we know this guy, the undocumented alien was seven times over the 0.02 for his age.

Okay. Other general guidelines, it takes five drinks depending on metabolism, your weight, your gender, five drinks to get to legal limit. This guy's 0.02 times seven, which makes him 0.14. So this is about 10 alcoholic drinks, 10 alcoholic drinks. Okay. That said, to Eric Faddis, veteran trial lawyer, TV legal analyst, founding partner, Varner and Faddis Elite Legal. Jump in, Eric. I want to hear your defense to this. Oh, dear.

This is a really tough one. Any way you look at it, it is completely devastating. Wait, I hope you're not going to say that to the jury when you're defending some guy like this. Oh dear. Oh my. Lions and tigers and bears. No, you better say something to get your client off the hook. And I don't know how the hay you're going to do that. Did you hear what I just said about how many drinks this guy had to have to be seven times the legal limit for his age? That's point one four. Absolutely.

But, you know, there are some mitigating circumstances, not that it excuses anything. He was 18. As the mad executive director said, his brain was not fully developed. That doesn't excuse the decisions he made, but it puts it into context. It puts it in perspective. Are you serious? My head's blowing off. Did you, what did you just say?

Did you say his brain wasn't fully formed? You know where you can stick that right? His brain is not fully formed. Oh, I can't wait for that to be argued in front of the jury. And typically that kind of thing would be argued in front of a judge at sentencing to just give perspective and context. But in terms of culpability, in terms of moral blameworthiness, oftentimes judges will look at a person's age, their development, but also past criminal history. I'm not aware of any criminal history for this gentleman.

We don't know because he's not from here. We don't have his record. How do I know what his record was from another country? He's from Honduras. How do I know what he did there? He could have done anything. I hear you. And it's a problem when it comes to enforcing the laws and sort of the influx of migrants recently,

because we can't exactly tell what is in their background and whether there is any prior criminality, any prior substance issues. Certainly, the defense attorney will look into that. They may hire a mitigation specialist, conduct a full sort of psychological evaluation and present that to try and lessen the sentence for this gentleman. A psychological evaluation to tell me while these two teens are dead, why they are dead. Can you imagine what they experience in the middle of the night, probably trying to come home from fishing and they see in the dark, this guy drunk coming at them in the wrong lane. It's 1am. He tries, Rylan tries to maneuver away. And then this guy maneuvers at the same time too late and they crash. And just to top it all off, he doesn't have a license. He is not wearing a seatbelt and he lives.

Where is the justice in that? There is an absence of justice. And it's bizarre that sometimes we see in these drunk driving cases where the drunk driver lives. I've heard speculation that it's because they don't brace for the impact and somehow that they turn out better off than the individuals who were doing nothing wrong and turn out to be victims in a horrible tragedy like this. You know what, Eric Faddis, I gotta hand it to you. I really do.

I don't agree with anything that you're saying. It's just like Satan himself spat it out on the air. But you never give up. I knock you down one theory after the next, his brain's not formed. Really? Then how did he know how to order drinks? How did he know to get to his car, crank it up? How did he get here? His brain is formed. He managed to make his way here all the way from the Honduras. Okay. So his brain is formed. Then you're telling me he needs a psychological evaluation i mean i do have to hand it to you you do never give up and no matter what i throw at you and i guess

that's kind of lawyer this guy will need i'm trying to understand something um about what happened to these two teens no license not wearing a wearing a seatbelt. Dr. Jan Gorniak is joining me, a renowned medical examiner, formerly with Clark County Office of the Coroner, never a lack of business in Vegas. Dr. Gorniak at World Peace Forensic Consulting. What does that mean? Because it can't be just anecdotal. And when I say anecdotal, I mean anecdotes, stories. It can't be just stories because I hear it over and over and over and over that the perp who is completely drunk, stinking drunk, had to have, what did I say, Jackie? Eight or 10 drinks before he got behind

the wheel? Hard liquor drinks. How is it that I keep hearing the drunk person without a seatbelt lives and the two teens who are not drinking and are in a seatbelt, they die? It is, I don't think anybody has that answer. And you're absolutely right. You always. And the impaired driver just reacts, you know what I mean? And unfortunately doesn't react properly. Dr. Gorniak, there's got to be something to it that the drunk driver is not bracing for impact because I hear lawyers, medical examiners say it over and over that they're so drunk, they kind of go with the collision. I don't understand how that works, but I've heard that explanation. We just heard it from Thaddeus. He's not the first one to say it, and maybe there's some truth to it. I also think, well, especially at that level of a point one for your judgment and your perceptions are going to be affected.

So, you know, Riley was trying to Ryland was trying to move out of the way. You're right. Judgment, perception intact compared to someone who's impaired or,icated, legally drunk, his response was to go back into the same lane, even though that car is still coming, instead of going the opposite way. And I think it's because of the effect of the alcohol, your perception and judgment is also impaired. The two teens riding in the backseat of the car suffered major injuries but are in stable condition, while Talia died at the scene and Rylan shortly after at the hospital. And then mom is woken up in the middle of the night with a trooper to tell her her teen girl with her life in front of her is dead thanks to a drunk driver, a drunk undocumented alien driver, an illegal immigrant from the Honduras, seven times

over the legal limit. No license, no seatbelt, nothing, just a car full of drunk driving. Back to Devin Dean joining me and joining us from Houma, Louisiana. This is Talia Crochet's mother. Devin, when you hear all of these arguments, his brain, the defendant's brain hadn't formed. He needs a psychological blah, blah, blah. All I keep thinking about is hearing you and it sounded like your heart was actually breaking when you said it's really over. They're gone. Yeah, it still is. Honestly, Nancy, I stayed so busy making sure all the kids are taken care of. We've had some of his friends that have spent time with us in the last week, other ones and their parents reaching out to us constantly. I don't, I've just been, I've just stayed so busy.

I don't even know if I'm fully accepting or going through the grief yet, to be honest with you, because I'm so concerned about all the kids. Rylan's sister here, Madison, his family in Texas, my 13 year old. And like I said, my 24 year old, she's pregnant. So, I mean, this is extremely stressful time for her. Honestly, I've just been holding it together and making sure they're all taken care of right now. I think it's what's keeping me going. But I'm so broken every time I think that my baby girl is just really not here, not coming home. Honestly, it's just, it's something no one can ever understand. And people say this, but until you experience it, you will never understand. Talia was such a sweet person. And she always,

like she was the one I said, I always joke and say she kept us on our toes because she did. So, and when the day that she passed, the first thing I said was, what are we going to do? Like I told my boyfriend, what are we going to do now that we don't have her? We all just, you know, we're always so involved with her with everything. And now she's just gone. Joining us, an all-star panel to make sense of what we are hearing. To Sunny Wall joining us, executive director of MAD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Louisiana. How do you deal with moms, dads that have to endure the loss of their children to a drunk driver, in this case, seven times over the legal limit? It's absolutely one

of the most horrific things that anyone can experience in their lives. We are a victims first organization and we have victim advocates that reach out after a certain amount of time to offer services at no cost to them to make sure that our justice system does its job and explain to them how no one is given a book, Nancy, on what to do when this happens. We we're not handed this is a club no one wants to join and with good reason it's absolutely heart-wrenching and we are devastated for all that's happened and um we are here for the victims first victims family first um it's just heart-wrenching it there is to it. And you're right, what you said earlier, this is not an accident. An accident is something without intent. But when you become impaired and get behind the wheel, you're driving a two ton weapon and that's a choice. It's a senseless, 100 percent immediately arrested on several traffic charges and DWI. During his processing, Louisiana State Police determined Flores Cordoza is not a U.S. citizen and came to the country illegally from his native Honduras. As cops learn the status of his victims that Talia Crochet and Ryan Oncal have passed away, Flores Cordoza is additionally charged

with two counts of DUI vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular negligence injuring. What more do we learn? Listen. The Jeep Cherokee is only occupied by driver Axel Flores Cordoza, who's found completely unharmed despite not wearing a seatbelt. Flores Cordoza, 18, is unlicensed, has open alcohol in his cup holder, and is clearly drunk. The teen voluntarily submits to a breath test that results in a BAC just under 0.14, equivalent to seven times the 0.02 legal limit for drivers under 21 and nearly twice the limit for drivers of legal drinking age. To Eric Faddis, you have handled so many DUI, vehicular homicides, that's what they're called. I really don't think that they should be distinguished from

malice and murder. Vehicular homicides are equivalent to a manslaughter where you don't have the requisite intent to commit a crime. I disagree because every time you take a drink, in this case, seven to eight alcoholic drinks, hard alcohol, every drink, every swallow was a decision and it's a decision to drive after drinking. To me, you know, of course the law is very clear. Intent to commit a crime can be either express or not implicit, explicit or implicit. Explicit is when I say, Eric Faddis, I've had it and I shoot you in the head. I'm killing you. Bam. That's explicitly stated. Implicit means the law determines you intended the act based on your actions, what you did.

And that is the case here. There is explicit evidence he meant to drink and drive with the consequence death. I hear you. And it's a fair point. distinction on is, you know, the intent to really take a life is different than just being reckless and knowingly disregarding a substantial risk that ends in tragedy. Unfortunately, they both have the same outcome. And a lot of people think that that point matters substantially. And I understand that. But when we're looking at the choices the perpetrator made, the law would say that the choice to try and intentionally take someone's

life is different than being reckless, than taking a risk. And we're talking about an 18-year-old here, clearly a horrible decision, but I'm not sure in his mind, did he ever intend to kill somebody? And I'm not sure that that intent would be implicit in just making bad decisions. I didn't mean to kill anybody. How about if I take a gun and point it at your head and pull the trigger and then say, oops, I didn't mean to kill him. I just meant to scare him. You know, there's certainly a weapon involved,

like the mad director said, but it's just a different scenario when a person acts with this reckless disregard. Now that's not okay either, but I think that our law and our legislators have said that that choice is less culpable than someone who really wants to steal another person's life. I just don't have any evidence that this driver had that such intent, although he did, of course, act recklessly. It's really just over. Like they're gone. A grieving mother speaks out about

the devastating loss of her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. Talia and Ryan, both gone after an undocumented individual, also known as an illegal immigrant, from Honduras, comes to our country, gets seven times over the legal drink limit, drives on the wrong side of the road in the dark, and mows into these two beautiful teens, now angels. How did the whole thing start? Listen. Talia Crochet is head over heels for Rylan on Cal. The Louisiana 18-year-olds meet just after graduating from neighboring H.L. Bourgeois and Central LaForche High Schools. They quickly become inseparable.

Talia even going with Rylan to Heartland, Texas to spend several weeks with his family. Talia can't wait for Rylan to return to Raceland after starting a new job with Gulf Logistics working as a deckhand. These two had just graduated from high school, one at the HL Bourgeois and one at Central La Forche and they immediately fall in puppy love. Listen. Rylan Oncal meets girlfriend Talia Crochet and two friends in Port Fortune just after finishing his first 28-day shift as a deckhand on an oil rig. The teens enjoy a much-needed night out together on dry land. Then pile into Rylan's Kia Rio to head back to Raceland,

taking Highway 3090 inland from the coast. On their way home from fishing together that night, this happens. As Ryland drives through the 1 a.m. darkness, he spots a set of headlights coming towards him. As the car gets closer, Ryland realizes the oncoming Jeep is driving in his lane. Ryland swerves into the left lane to avoid the wrong way driver, but the Jeep also corrects back into the left lane to avoid the wrong way driver, but the Jeep also corrects back into the left lane and slams into the teens head on. The front end of the Kia is totally destroyed. Can you imagine what happened to the driver and the passenger up front? Listen.

The front end of Ryland's Kia Rio is completely caved in. First responders arrive within minutes, pulling the occupants from the wreckage. But Tulia is already gone. Ryland is rushed to a hospital where he also dies of his injuries. The couple's two friends riding in the back seat also have serious injuries but are stabilized at the hospital. We're now medical examiner Dr. Jan Gorniak joining us. I know you've handled a lot of vehicular homicide cases. Looking at the front of that car, that Kia Rio is totally destroyed. What do you make of the cause of death? Could they have survived even for moments after impact? What would they have endured, Dr. Gorniak? Especially on that passenger side, you can see the intrusion into the car.

I would believe there are, I would say, multiple blunt force injuries, crush injuries, even sometimes the seatbelt. I don't know if you've ever been in a car crash and the seatbelt tightens up, that can cause some neck injuries. So I can assume that, you know, she, um, had neck injuries, chest injuries, crushing injuries, especially too, when you have ale bags deploying. So then you get pushed from both sides. Um, Ryylan, probably same thing. Most likely you have the steering wheel that can cause chest injuries, head injuries. You see, I'm not sure, that glass was probably a combination of the collision and the firefighters using the quote unquote jaws of light to extricate them. But it's a lot of compression.

I would say compression. So lung injuries, rib injuries, head injuries, neck injuries. So just, I mean, a massive amount of injuries, especially being pronounced dead at the scene. The on-scene breath test revealed the driver's blood alcohol level was seven times the legal limit for an underage driver. Joining me is Talia's mother, Devin Dean, joining us from Louisiana. I just don't know how you had the strength to go through the funeral. How did you get through that? Honestly, Nancy, the days leading up to the funeral, we were so busy making sure that Rylan and Talia had the most beautiful service and had the best of everything that we could give them. And from there, it's really just been making sure all the other kids are okay. I have my moments. I break down a little bit here

and there, but for the most part we're all staying very close-knit my daughters have been coming over every day Madison's been coming over every day that's Rylan's sister we've all just been a unit and kind of keeping each other's spirits up and right now it's working but I know at some point that that's not going to be able to continue and honestly that's probably what I'm more scared of than anything. What bits and pieces do you recall of the funeral? Oh, girl, I remember the entire thing. I was very alert and aware. Every time I would blink, someone else was grabbing me and hugging me.

And it felt like a million people, to be honest. It felt like I was there for 10 hours versus four. It was just crazy the amount of the outpouring of love that we had at that funeral and that service. But, girl, seeing all those children break down, kids their age that should never have to see a friend of theirs in a casket was absolutely the worst. That was the worst thing. I was like, me as a mom, my heart, my mom heart is broken. Devin, you stated that there were youngsters there that actually saw Talia in her casket. It was an open casket funeral. We were blessed enough that she did have extensive injuries to the right side of her face where the car hit.

But the left side, she was perfectly beautiful. So we were able to fix her hair to where it covered half of her face where the car hit, but the left side, she was perfectly beautiful. So we were able to fix her hair to where it covered half of her face. And the other half of her face was beautiful and looked just like her. And Rylan looked perfect. I just don't know how you're putting one foot in front of the other. What is your message to other parents? I think first and foremost, my biggest thing was I was always so careful with my kids. I always told them, you know, this is what you need to do. You need to be careful.

Watch this. It doesn't matter. It genuinely doesn't matter because no matter how careful they are when something like this happens, my kids are gone and they did nothing wrong. They were having a good afternoon out fishing. Don't drink and drive.

Teach your children, stop others from drinking and driving. Do not get behind the wheel if you're intoxicated because this is not worth it. It's just not. Like there's nothing that they can measure up to what this family is going through. And not even just the family, this has rocked our tri-parish area.

Like the outpouring, like I said, of love is just unbelievable. People crying daily, reaching out to me. Like it's, it's so sad. Guys, the toll free tip number for mad mothers against drunk driving 877 mad help 877-623-3435. If we can even stop one drunk driving fatality, it's all worth it. And our prayers go out to Devin and the family of Ryland. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.