Citrus: Woman killed while driving to a new life

Woman killed while driving to a new life

The mother of three was headed to Las Vegas to look for work when she veered off the road and hit a beam, dying instantly.

By BILL VARIAN

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Carla Parham was hoping to start a new life. Divorced with three children, she felt like she was treading water in St. Petersburg.

So when her supervisor at McDonald's told her that he and his wife were moving back to Las Vegas, Parham asked if she could join them. She left her children behind with her ex-husband to make the cross-country drive with plans to be a nanny, get a good job and reclaim her kids. Parham's new life came to an end just three hours into her journey Wednesday when the car she was driving veered off U.S. 19 into a vertical support beam for a railway signal. Parham, 33, was killed instantly along with a 4-year-old dalmatian named Baby that she was toting for her boss, Mark Azpeitia.

Azpeitia, 32, watched the whole thing from the rear-view mirror of the Budget rental truck he was driving ahead of Parham.

"This is just a nightmare," Azpeitia said. "Why do things like this happen?"

With no home to return to in St. Petersburg and plans to reach Las Vegas, Azpeitia continued driving when investigators with Florida Highway Patrol finished with him. He said he would try to call Parham's family when he reached the next big town, possibly Tallahassee.

"I don't know what to do," he said.

The accident occurred at about 8:15 p.m. on U.S. 19 near Power Line Street just north of Crystal River and west of the Florida Power Corp. energy complex. The CSX railway line Parham was preparing to cross primarily supplies the energy complex with coal.

Investigators with the Florida Highway Patrol are still trying to figure out what happened. Two witnesses confirmed Azpeitia's account that Parham suddenly and explicably veered off a straightaway section of U.S. 19 in Azpeitia's Geo Tracker, said Highway Patrol Sgt. Jim Tobin.

There was no sign that Parham applied the brakes, Tobin said. So she likely hit the metal support beam of the large cant lever railway signal going near the 60 mph speed limit. The force of the collision cracked the concrete foundation and metal support beam.

"She hit it at full force," Tobin said. "It was a very serious impact."

Azpeitia had moved to St. Petersburg from Las Vegas less than a year ago. As a store manager, he recently oversaw the closing of one of the oldest McDonald's restaurants, off 34th Street in St. Petersburg, and the reopening of the new building nearby.

That's when he met Parham, who worked for him. Both had been through divorces, though Azpeitia was remarried. They struck up a friendship in which Azpeitia played the role of confidante and counselor, he said.

Azpeitia's new wife has an ill father in Mexico. They were returning to Las Vegas to be closer to him. Parham was going to follow, play nanny to his children from a previous marriage and try to get a good job.

Paula Smith, Parham's sister in St. Petersburg, said Parham had three children, ages 7, 10 and 11. She had recently run into problems with school officials because the children were not showing up for school.

Azpeitia said the two had only minutes before stopped at Homosassa gas station to refuel, stretch and buy soda. He bought Parham a Mountain Dew, and they departed with plans to stop again in Perry. He told her to flash her lights if he got too far ahead.

Azpeitia was hauling a 14-foot fishing boat behind his rental truck and had his pug-breed dog Candy with him. Parham was following him in his Geo Tracker, loaded with her art books, stuffed animals and other items.

Two witnesses confirmed Azpeitia's account that Parham suddenly veered off a straightway stretch of U.S. 19 inexplicably, Tobin said. Smith said her sister thought she was in danger of losing custody of the children. So she turned over custody to her ex-husband of four years, Gordon, in Clearwater, with plans to make a fresh start and reclaim them. She has a sister in Provo, Utah, not far away from Las Vegas, though Mrs. Smith said they were not close.

"She knew she was going to either have to let them take her children away from her or make this move and make it temporary," Smith said. "Her children were the most important thing in the world to her."

Smith said her sister was a talented artist who occasionally worked at day care centers. Parents would occasionally hire her to draw pictures of their children. Though she struggled raising her own children.

"Carla wasn't real responsible," Smith said. "She though everybody was her best friend, whether or not they were."

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.