Vigil Friday for LITH Murder-Suicide Victims

In the coming days, the community will mourn the deaths of two Lake in the Hills children and their mother killed in an apparent murder-suicide.

Carla M. Lopez-Mejia, 27, hanged herself and her two children, Ezequiel “Izzy,” 11, and Ariana, 8, were strangled. Their bodies were found just before 3 p.m. on Jan. 11 in their townhome in the 2300 block of Daybreak Drive in Lake in the Hills.

Visitation for all three has been set for for 3 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at DeFiore-Jorgensen Funeral & Cremation Service, 10763 Dundee Road in Huntley. A Funeral mass will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at St. Mary Catholic Church, 10307 Dundee Road in Huntley. Burial will be in St. Mary Cemetery at a later date.

Meanwhile, Amy Novalinski, whose daughter attended Martin Elementary School with Ariana, is planning a community vigil for Friday, the Northwest Herald reports. Ariana was a third-grade student at Martin while Izzy was a sixth-grade student at Marlowe Middle School.

The vigil will be held in between the two schools, near 9625 Haligus Road in Lake in the Hills, at 5 p.m. on Friday, according to the Northwest Herald. A rep from St. Mary Catholic Church of Huntley will lead the vigil and glow sticks and candles will be provided to those who attend.

A motive has not yet been released by authorities into the deaths, which rattled the neighborhood where the Garcia family lived. The coroner’s office has also not yet ruled on a final “manner of death.”

Neighbors said Ezequiel and Ariana Garcia were always playing outside and were remembered as sweet children, according to the Northwest Herald. Jennifer Goodrich, who lives next door to the home on Daybreak Drive, told the Northwest Herald her daughters played with the siblings. They rode their bikes, played school and loved their dogs, she said.

“You don’t know what’s going on in people’s lives,” Goodrich told the Northwest Herald. “… I feel bad for them.”

Monica Brown, who also lives in the neighborhood, told CBS Chicago the mother seemed depressed in recent weeks.

“I just always saw her sad. These last few weeks, I saw her sad, and when I went over there on New Year’s – because I needed to grab a safety pin for my New Year’s dress – the little daughter answered the door, and the mom was like, ‘Tell her, no, we don’t have any,’ and I’m like, ‘Alright, happy holidays, guys,’ and that was actually the last time I seen or talked to the mom,” Brown told the TV station.

The father of the two young children killed by their mother, whom authorities believe then hanged herself, said his family had “no dark secrets or anything like that.”

Luis Garcia told the Daily Herald he and his wife, Carla M. Lopez-Mejia, had been separated for about seven months. The two had been married for seven years and were wed in Woodstock in August 2009, according to Carla’s obituary.

Luis Garcia told the Daily Herald their children were happy while he and Carla had a “good working relationship.” Luis Garcia said they were focused on making sure their children were well cared for and had the best chances to succeed.

Luis Garcia’s brother, Adam Garcia of Huntley, set up a GoFundMe page on Thursday to cover the burial and funeral expenses for his brother’s family. The fund-raising page has raised over $30,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

Ezequiel loved video games and to build things, Adam Garcia wrote on the GoFundMe page. And Ariana was passionate about animals. They both loved their dog, Gumball, and were always playing with him.

Adam Garcia said the children were his “brother’s life and joy.”

“Our family is going to miss their endless love for life,” he added.

The children, who were both born in Elgin, loved spending time with each other and with family and friends and loved riding their bikes, according to their obituary.

Carla, who was born in Mexico, worked in customer service for Chase Banks, according to her obituary.

More on Patch

• Father Of Children Killed In LITH Murder-Suicide Speaks Out
• Coroner IDs Mom, 2 Children Killed In Suspected Murder-Suicide in Lake in the Hills

Photo credit: GoFundMe