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Family criticizes response to missing cousins

Two men died in the early morning of Nov. 20. Family members found their overturned car five days later.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published November 29, 2005

TAMPA - Two cousins found Saturday in an overturned Chevrolet Impala near Sun City Center died instantly in the crash and had been dead "at least five days," according to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner. "It looks like they had highway speed of about 70 mph," said Dr. Leszek Chrostowski. "They both had skull fractures. They were dead instantly."

But the news that Alexander and Edward Sauceda died quickly, and likely as they were driving home from Ybor City early the morning of Nov. 20, did little to comfort their grieving loved ones.

The Sauceda family continues to criticize the response by law enforcement in Manatee and Sarasota counties during the days the cousins were missing, even as law enforcement officials defended their actions.

"It wasn't even the authorities that found them," said Olivia Sauceda, Alexander's wife. "It was our own family.

"We could have found them earlier" with more help from authorities, she said.

Manatee County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dave Bristow said his agency "actually did a little more than we normally do on a missing persons report where there is no indication of foul play."

Family members found the Impala at about noon Saturday, upside down and hidden in the underbrush and trees near an exit ramp off Interstate 75 to State Road 674. The hazard lights still were blinking.

Edward Sauceda, 25, of Sarasota; and Alexander, 24, of Bradenton, were dead inside the car. The airbags had deployed, but neither wore seatbelts, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

"If they were belted, they would have had a chance," said Dr. Chrostowski. "When they crashed, they were moved out of their seats, and hit their heads upward."

Authorities have not determined what caused the crash, or the exact time that it occurred, said FHP spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins. They are awaiting the results of toxicology reports.

Olivia Sauceda last saw her husband around 3 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 20 at the Prana nightclub in Ybor City. Alexander and his cousin, Edward, had some drinks. Olivia Sauceda said she was there, but drove home in a separate car with relatives.

Sometime around 4 a.m., she talked to Edward, who was driving and getting close to home, she said. Alexander had passed out in the passenger's seat. The plan was for Alexander to let him sleep on Edward's couch in Sarasota, and come home to Bradenton later Sunday.

But the men never arrived. By Sunday night, Olivia Sauceda was at the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. She said she and her relatives begged the Manatee County Sheriff's officials to take them seriously.

"They said they were adults, and they had no mental problems," Olivia Sauceda said. "They thought they were probably out joy-riding."

Bristow said deputies took a missing persons report the night of Nov. 20, but there was no indication the men had met foul play.

"We had no evidence of any crime," he said. "They weren't juveniles. All we knew was the family hadn't heard from them, and they had been out in Ybor City. And technically, they were missing from Hillsborough County."

Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said the family did not contact her agency.

Manatee sheriff's deputies did an aerial search Wednesday, Nov. 23, but found nothing, Bristow said.

Meanwhile, Sauceda family members searched on their own. They drove along Tampa Bay's interstates, looking for signs of the cousins by the side of the roads. They posted fliers about the missing men in gas stations and around Ybor City.

They filed a missing persons report with the Sarasota Sheriff's Office, which put out a notice to all law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for the Impala, said Sheriff's Capt. Steve Burns.

The circumstances of the missing men did not meet the criteria for the kind of all-out search that happens when, say, a child goes missing, Burns said.

"This was not a juvenile, not someone handicapped or in need of medical assistance," he said. "We didn't have a marooned vehicle, no known danger or indication they had met with foul play."

Still, the agency did an aerial search Friday from Sarasota north up I-75 to Interstate 4, he said. Friday evening, a detective interviewed family members to get more information about the Sauceda cousins. When relatives told the detective about the last phone call Edward made to his girlfriend, shortly before 5 a.m. on Nov. 20, the detective called the cell phone company to determine where the call was made from.

Late Friday, while the Sauceda family was still with the detective, the company sent a fax to the Sarasota Sheriff's Office indicating the call was dialed from southern Hillsborough, Burns said.

The detective planned to do an aerial search of the area Saturday. But before he did, the Sauceda family went to the area Saturday morning on their own and found the overturned Impala, Burns said.

This week, Olivia Sauceda picked out a casket for her husband of almost four years. Her husband's funeral services are Friday and Saturday.

She fears her young children may not remember their father.

-- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 29, 2005, 18:38:01]