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The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau has confirmed the identities of a mother and young daughter from Manteca who died in a car crash along South Vasco Road in Livermore two weekends ago.
The victims were 24-year-old Tahlaynah Casuga and 4-year-old Katana Casuga, according to the coroner’s bureau. The Livermore Police Department continues to investigate the early-morning wreck that also seriously injured the girl’s father.
Tahlaynah Casuga’s grieving mother has launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds for funeral services for her daughter and granddaughter – the effort had raised more than $10,000 as of Wednesday.
“My family and I are devistated (sic) and heartbroken over the whole situation. I am asking for your support in laying them to rest and giving them a proper burial,” Tamra Casuga wrote on the webpage. “Thank u from the bottom of my heart..means everything to me..God Bless.”
The situation unfolded just before 2:30 a.m. July 21 when a black Hyundai carrying the family of three was traveling northbound on South Vasco Road not far from Interstate 580 when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle went off the roadway, crashed into a tree and caught fire near the Naylor Avenue intersection, according to police.
The woman — later identified as Tahlaynah Casuga — was pronounced dead at the scene while her young daughter succumbed to her injuries at an area hospital, according to police. LPD originally reported Katana Casuga’s age as 5 years old, but the coroner’s bureau confirmed the girl was 4.
First responders, who arrived to find the Hyundai engulfed in flames, pulled a 25-year-old man with critical injuries from the wreckage at the scene. His name has not been released, but police said he was the girl’s father and in a dating relationship with her mother. An update on the man’s condition was not immediately available.
LPD is still actively investigating the circumstances of the fatal crash, with no new updates on the case available publicly as of Tuesday.
