Lodi boy orphaned in car crash awaits word on his fate

The fate of a 9-year-old Lodi boy whose family was killed in a car crash last month remains up in the air as he continues to recover from his injuries.

A relative told reporters at the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento on Tuesday that three weeks after the crash claimed the lives of Eden Miranda’s parents, three siblings and his mother’s unborn baby, talks about where he will end up are ongoing.

Luis Miranda Ochoa, 32; his wife, Viviana Rodriguez Saldado, 31, who was seven months pregnant; and three of their children, Irvin, 12, Jose, 6, and Stephanie, 5, died in the crash.

Lodi police say the crash was caused by 28-year-old Ryan Morales. He faces six counts of second-degree murder and six counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Eden’s uncle, Felipe Miranda, who spoke to local media through a translator Tuesday, said his brother and family came to Lodi in 2001 to work in the farm fields. He and a cousin are now the only family members left in the area.
Eden, who is currently living with his godmother in Lodi, is wheelchair bound and keeping up with his schoolwork via regular visits from his teacher. His grandmother and other relatives are expected to arrive from Mexico later this month for discussions on where the boy will end up, the Sacramento Bee reported.

“I want him to have a good life right now because he has no parents, nothing,” fifth-grader Raheel Khan told KCRA-TV outside the family’s former home. “I just wish he has a good life.”

A trust fund overseen by the Mexican Consulate and a Stockton attorney has been set up to help defray the costs of what is expected to be a long-term recovery for Eden.

“He has a lifetime of very difficult challenges ahead of him,” said the Stockton attorney, Douglas Gessell. “Obviously, he won’t have his parents to help him out with that.”

Morales, who had been recovering from injuries at Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento, was arrested Friday and moved to a Lodi hospital. He was then booked Saturday into the San Joaquin County Jail.

Donations to Eden’s family trust fund, the Bee reported, can be made at branches of BBVA Compass bank to the Miranda Family Funeral, Account No. 10877761.
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jason.wells@latimes.com

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