Community rallies around family of two young children who died in Smithfield floodwaters

After three days of searching, sheriff’s deputies in Johnston County on Thursday found the body of a 4-year-old boy lost in a flooded Smithfield Creek. He was lying just 30 yards from where the body of his 5-year-old sister was located Wednesday.

Sheriff Steve Bizzell told The News & Observer that the boy, Abraham Martinez Jr., was carried about a quarter mile from the washed-out section of Galilee Road where his mother’s car slid into fast-moving water just before midnight Monday.

Rescuers tried to pull the boy to safety in a swift boat after the wreck, fighting a turbulent current, darkness and floating debris. But the boat carrying him and his mother, Vanessa Castro, capsized.

Only Castro was saved. Abraham’s older sister, Alexa, was trapped inside the family’s sedan and floated out of sight. When rescuers recovered the car, it was empty.

The search sent dozens of sheriff’s deputies into the creek bed, many of them leading dogs looking for a scent, hoping to find the children alive.

Helicopters swarmed overhead for two days. More deputies combed the banks of the nearby Neuse River, where high flood waters pushed into the tree branches.

But the brother and sister were discovered only a quarter-mile from the spot where their car left the road. Bizzell said the creek’s water had receded, revealing their bodies.

‘We were hoping for good news’

When asked by an N&O reporter in person for an interview in Smithfield Thursday morning, the parents of the Martínez children said they did not want to speak to reporters.

“We were hoping for good news, but we have is better than not having anything at all,” said Nancy Martinez, 31, an aunt of the children, told the N&O Thursday.

“At least know we know where to go pay our condolences we know where we could go and spend time with them and not just be out here wondering like, ‘Where are they at, what are they doing, what condition are they in?’”

The news is hard, she said, but has provided for some closure for the death of her niece and nephew whom her own children played with. Martínez struggled with telling her children, who were in disbelief that their cousins had died.

Forthcoming vigils and other memorial events for the community are likely to take place later in the evening or the week, she said.

“If you got your own kids, kiss them goodnight every night,” Martínez said.

An unexpected gift

A few hours before the body of Abraham Jr. was found by local authorities Thursday morning, Allen Wellons approached the Martínez family to reach out in compassion and tell them their funeral costs will be covered by him.

“I was going by the Neuse River bridge this morning and I saw some of the family was still gathered by the bank, so I stopped by and offered my help,” said Wellons in an interview with The N&O.

Wellons, a Johnston County native, knew the river banks since he was young — some of the surrounding area belonged to his great grandfather’s farmlands.

“I, like, everybody have been really just grieving for this family for what they have gone through, and the loss of the two beautiful children,” Wellons said.

He was able to speak to one family member and tell them that he would offer his help, then spoke to the family with the aid of his bilingual assistant, Ginifer Wilkins.

An attorney in Smithfield and candidate for District 11 for the N.C. Senate, Wellons emphasized that he wants to help as a private citizen and not as part of his legal and political work.

“We are all one people, and I think we need to act like it,” Wellons said. “I want to make them feel like they are a part of this community and this community wants to give to them.”

“It really touched my heart,” Nancy Martinez said. “You don’t expect people like a complete stranger to come up to you and be like, ‘Well, here you go. Take this on my behalf.’ … you would never imagine he was going to come up to us and say like, ‘Hey. I want to pay for this.’”

Community comes together

The search gripped Johnston County for three days as locals arrived at the ruined road seeking news, noting that the normally harmless brown creek had not risen so high even during Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Volunteers brought food and drinks to the dozens of friends and family members who gathered at nearby Brightleaf Flea Market, where they held frequent vigils and sometimes held hands on the bridge overlooking the Neuse.

“We’ve had numerous people come out here since the morning,” Nancy Martínez told the N&O Wednesday night. “You do not know the amount of support we have gotten from the community — water, food, hand sanitizer, first aid. As a community we did come together.”

911 calls reveal family’s struggle

A 911 tape released in Johnston County Wednesday revealed the family’s long struggle to survive in the heavy rain, which fell up to 8 inches in some spots Monday.

Dispatchers took four 911 calls from Castro and calmly instructed her to unbuckle her children and place them on the car’s roof as the water rose to her knees inside.

She told them she managed to get the boy on top of the car, but it began to shift in the rising water, and she soon found herself clinging to a tree in the water, unable to see her children or the car.

“She was five!” Castro yelled when a dispatcher asked her daughter’s age. “I don’t think this tree’s going to hold much longer. The current is so fast. Oh, Jesus God, forgive all my sins.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 9:58 AM.