FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The driver of the car that plowed into a poolside cabana bathroom and killed a young mother-to-be and her unborn child told police she does not remember the incident.
Alanna DeMella, 26, who was seven months pregnant, was in a bathroom at the hotel's pool cabana building when an Audi sedan crashed into it.
"You just heard this loud, loud RPM coming from the east, going to the west -- a good five to eight seconds," said a witness.
A witness said DeMella's husband, Michael DeMella, who just minutes earlier was drinking water and sunning with his wife on their vacation from Massachusetts, began screaming, "Help, my wife's inside!"
The couple was expecting a baby boy in a matter of weeks, his sonogram proudly posted on Alanna DeMella's Facebook page.
Back home near Boston, there was grief and shock at the school where Alanna taught third grade.
Police in Fort Lauderdale have taken a statement from the Audi's driver, Rosa Rivera Kim, 34, who is recovering from minor injuries at Broward General Medical Center. Investigators have subpoenaed hospital records, such as toxicology test results, when they come in.
It is unclear how fast the Audi was going at the time of the crash.
In front of the Riverside Hotel's pool building on Southeast 4th Street, white and black gashes in the road provide a picture of how Rivera missed a curve and crashed through a hedge and into the cabana building. The posted speed limit on the street is 25 miles per hour, but witnesses report her car going faster.
"There was no braking, no screeching of tires," said one witness.
Kim has a valid Florida's driver's license. The only blemish is a ticket for an improper U-turn in July 2010.