Some details of the incident remain murky: was there alcohol involved? Did the young driver try to run? Where was he going?
But the outline of the tragedy early Saturday morning is clear: Josefina Prospero was sleeping in her Bolingbrook apartment, when an SUV came crashing through her wall, crushing her with its front tire and killing her immediately.
The Herald News reports that Prospero's husband Juan, who was sleeping beside her, only suffered minor injuries in the incident.
"I don't understand. Why her and not me? Why not me? Why not me? She didn't deserve it. She had a beautiful smile," Josefina Prospero's husband said through a translator, according to ABC-7.
The driver of the SUV, 17-year-old Luis Benito, has been charged with reckless homicide in the incident. The Chicago Tribune spoke with the boy's family:
At about 2:30 am Saturday, the driver and a 17-year-old passenger were coming home from a dance and looking for a parking place, according to Lorenzo Martinez, who said he is the passenger's uncle and the boyfriend of the driver's mother.
But all of the complex's parking lots were full. Martinez said his nephew told him the driver initially decided to park between apartment buildings.
Realizing he wasn't allowed to park there, the driver "became nervous" and punched the acclerator to get out, Martinez said.
"Instead of braking, he lost it," Martinez said, admitting he was still puzzled by the incident.
Police said that Benito and his passenger tried to flee once they had crashed through the wall of 315 Woodcreek Drive, but neighbors who arrived on the scene were able to restrain them.
Friends and family gathered in a neighbor's apartment over the weekend to consoleJosefina Prospero's husband, who was racked with grief and had little money to pay for health care or burial costs. He and his wife had been sending money back to their respective families in Mexico.
The victim's brother was also in the apartment at the time; he was reportedly unharmed.