A day after two teens died in what appears to be a case of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, the family of one of the victims is speaking out.
Yefferson Flores, 17, was found dead in a vehicle along with 16-year-old Litzy Flores on Sunday morning in suburban Hoffman Estates, according to police.
Yefferson’s sister Kenzi is still trying to come to grips with the tragedy, and spoke exclusively to NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago.
“I cannot do this. My heart is broken in pieces. I don’t know what to do,” she said.
While police say the teens’ death appears to be accidental, Yefferson’s family is having a hard time accepting it.
“How did they find his wallet by where he works and his body in another place how did that happen?,” Kenzi said. “The thing that they are saying that maybe the car had some problem or something like that it’s so difficult to believe my brother was so careful with everything and mostly about his car.”
Kenzi said she had to go to the hospital to identify her brother’s body, and she is having a difficult time shaking the image out of her mind.
“It’s difficult when I close my eyes I see like his eyes and that’s not his eyes and it’s so difficult,” she said.
According to his family, Yefferson was an avid soccer player who was hoping to join the U.S. Army after graduating from Conant High School.
Instead, now his mother Maria Del Carmen is left picking up the pieces after her son’s death.
“I remember everything,” she said according to a translation by NBC’s JC Navarrete. “When he’d come home from school as a child, I just remember everything.”
Yefferson’s family hopes to get more clarity on his death in coming days, and as they process their grief, they are working on sending his body back to Honduras for a funeral and burial.
