Local man killed in crash day after his brother’s funeral

IDAHO FALLS – It had only been 24 hours since Teresa Silerio laid her son to rest when she got the news that another son had just been killed.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office found a body inside a Buick Verano while responding to a two-vehicle crash on North River Road Friday night. The crash is still under investigation and law enforcement has not officially released the names of the people involved.

RELATED | One person dead after two-vehicle crash in Bonneville County

But Maria Alvarez, a friend of the Silerio family, informed EastIdahoNews.com Monday afternoon that the man killed in the crash was 37-year-old Juan Silerio, Teresa’s son.

The day before, Teresa and her family held a funeral for Juan’s brother, Ramon, 36, who died on April 19 from a heart condition.

After losing two sons within weeks of each other, Teresa’s head is spinning and she can hardly believe it.

“She’s speechless. She can’t even process it, honest to God,” Alvarez says of Teresa.

Teresa doesn’t speak English fluently so Alvarez is speaking on her behalf.

Alvarez says Ramon, who lived in Roberts with his mom and had a prior history of health issues, had been at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City for six weeks prior to his death. She doesn’t know what the specific issue was but says he went to the doctor because he was concerned about something related to his heart.

Ramon ended up in Utah, where they scheduled him for surgery. There were some complications and he did not survive.

He was buried on Thursday at the Market Lake Cemetery in Roberts.

Alvarez explains Ramon would call Teresa every morning at 8 a.m. to check on her. Teresa is a single mom and she works the late shift at her job. In the days since Ramon’s passing, Teresa can’t help but think of him when she looks at the clock every morning.

“When he had days off, he’d call her to see if she took lunch or if she wanted him to take care of lunch. She hated driving in the snow so he would drive from Roberts to Idaho Falls. When she got off her shift, her car (had all the snow scraped off it). It was (running) and warm. He would have her follow him to a gas station and they would leave her car there and he would drive her home,” says Alvarez.

Teresa and her son went everywhere together and she’s going to miss him.

The day after the funeral, Alvarez says Juan had gone to Idaho Falls to get some food for his mom so she wouldn’t have to worry about cooking anything while she was grieving.

“He said he wouldn’t be long and that he’d bring me dinner,” Teresa says, according to Alvarez.

When Juan left around 7:10 p.m., Teresa had no idea that would be the last time she would talk to him. He died instantly in a crash 20 minutes later.

After several hours, Teresa wondered what was taking so long.

“It was 11:30 p.m. when a cop came and knocked on the door to deliver the news (that Juan had been killed in a crash),” says Alvarez. “She didn’t want to believe it.”

Alvarez says she was at the Dog Park about a mile from the crash site when it occurred. She saw all the police cars and wondered what was going on, but thought nothing of it. She was shocked to learn what had happened in a text from her brother the next day.

“When I was finally able to call my family and they confirmed that’s what happened, I felt unbelievably horrible for them,” Alvarez recalls.

She was reluctant to approach Teresa in her time of mourning, but she wanted to help. She opened a GoFundMe and Venmo account on the family’s behalf to help pay for funeral expenses. More than $4,800 have been donated so far.

“Teresa and her family are very thankful for the support they are receiving. She has had a very rough last two months between renting cars and hotels and missing work to go see Ramón and borrowing money for his funeral and to then have this tragic death of her other son Juan is unimaginable!” Alvarez writes in an email to EastIdahoNews.com.

Alvarez anticipates it costing about $40,000 to pay for both funerals and she’s asking you to donate anything you can.

Juan and Ramon were both single. In addition to their mother, they leave behind another brother and a sister. Juan’s funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at noon at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Roberts.