Parents find remains of teen son hugging dead dog in Maui home destroyed by wildfire
Grieving parents found the body of their 14-year-old adopted son hugging his dead dog after the Maui wildfires — then carried him around half a mile to a police station to be confirmed among the dead.
Schoolboy Keyiro Fuentes had been home alone enjoying his last day of summer break when the deadliest US wildfires in a century started overwhelming his neighborhood in Lahaina, his mother, Luz Vargas, told CBS News.
The mom was working five miles away at the time — and unable to get home when she saw the smoke, despite begging cops to let her through their barriers.
When she and the rest of her family managed to search their home two days later, they found Keyiro’s charred body wrapped around his dead dog, the sobbing mom told CBS.
“He was not as I expected, in ashes,” she said of the body thought to have been preserved by the extreme heat.
“God maintained him like this. So, we knew it was him,” she said of her adopted son.
The family then wrapped Keyiro’s body in a tarp, carrying the remains half a mile to the nearest police station.
The Maui Police Department on Thursday confirmed to HawaiiNewsNow that the body had been dropped off there.
“The individual’s biological relatives are residents of Mexico, and efforts are underway to conduct DNA testing to make a positive identification,” the department said.
The family who adopted Keyiro had been preparing a 15th birthday party for him — but instead spent the day remembering his life with a vigil.
Mom Vargas, who runs a cleaning service, recalled her despair at being unable to reach the boy when she first saw huge plumes of black smoke rising above their hometown.
When they were prevented from driving toward the area, Vargas took off running, with neighbors trying to stop her.
“They were saying, ‘Don’t go. Don’t go.’ I said, ‘But it’s my son!’” she told HawaiiNewsNow.
She was also stopped at a police barrier blocking people from going into the disaster zone.
“I threw myself on the floor, lifted my hands up and begged God,” she said, adding she was told to just have faith that the boy got out.
Instead, he is among at least 115 killed in the blaze, with more than 1,000 still missing.
“I wish I could’ve made more memories with him,” said his brother, Josue Garcia Vargas.
“He was too young. If he still had time. I know he would’ve been a very, very, very good man.”
