LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) — A teddy bear, flowers and candles adorned the bushes in a plaza near the intersection of Starkey Road and East Bay Drive in Largo on Wednesday.
The two frames at the base of the shrubbery held the photos of 26-year-old Paulino Trejo Mendoza and his friend, 22-year-old Ariadna Sanchez.
“We lost my brother, my only brother,” Jennifer Trejo Mendoza said. “We feel lost.”
Dozens of loved ones showed up at the makeshift memorial as it grew, giving silent support.
“We’re heartbroken, we don’t know, we don’t know what to think,” Mendoza said. “We’re just basically broken.”
Friends said the two were on their way to get early morning tacos after going out Saturday night.
“She was an amazing, amazing person,” Eileen Leonardo said.
Leonardo said she got a call from Ariadna at about 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, asking if she made it home.
That would be the last time she heard her friend’s voice.
“They had so much more to live for,” Leonardo said. “They had so many lives to touch.”