Local News

Children Killed in Crash Identified

(La Porte County, IN) - Two children killed in a motor vehicle collision near Westville over the weekend have been identified.

 

LaPorte County Coroner Lynn Swanson stated that the victims were Alexander De Leon, 11, and his four-year-old sister, Luisa De Leon, whose autopsies revealed they died due to blunt force trauma to the head.

 

La Porte County Police said Luis De Leon Muniz, 41, was headed southbound in a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer pulling a U-Haul trailer when he ran a stop sign at Joliet Road and County Road 900 West on Saturday, leading to the incident. Both drivers were taken to area hospitals with injuries to their upper bodies.

 

Swanson said the victims were the children of De Leon Muniz.

 

Police said a 16-year-old girl in the Muniz vehicle was airlifted to a regional hospital with an upper-body injury.  Norma Atempa, 36,  mother of the deceased, and who was also riding in the Muniz vehicle, was taken by ambulance also with an upper-body injury.

 

Investigators are waiting for the results of a toxicology test to determine if alcohol or drugs were a factor in the collision.

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