Donations stolen during services for girl who died

STOCKTON — Donations meant to be given to the grieving family of a child who died after going under anesthesia were stolen in the parking lot of a south Stockton funeral home while family and friends were mourning.

Three vehicles were broken into in front of Cano Funeral Home, 2164 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., on Tuesday between 6-8 p.m. as the family of Daleyza Avila-Hernandez prayed the rosary.

An individual who also had done fundraising to give to the family lost an unknown amount of cash and personal items, Yolanda Dawson, aunt to Daleyza, said Friday.

She said she does not know if that person will file a police report. Stockton Police Department spokesman Officer Joe Silva said that as of Friday no report has been made.

“We always encourage people to never leave their valuables in plain sight as that is just an invitation for thieves,” Silva said.

Daleyza was laid to rest Wednesday in the Stockton Catholic Cemetery. The 3-year-old died the morning of June 12 while under anesthesia for dental treatment at the Children’s Dental Surgery Center on East March Lane in Stockton.

She was scheduled for extensive dental work, including having two molars and a tooth removed.

Parents Araceli Avila and Jose Hernandez said in Spanish that emergency services arrived shortly after the procedure had started. A nurse came out and told them that their daughter’s heart had stopped and she was in stable condition. She was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center where she died.

Both Stockton Police and the Dental Board of California have open investigations into the cause of Daleyza’s death but have not released any details. Silva said authorities are conducting an active child death investigation, but it appears nothing criminal happened.

The clinic, known as an “ambulatory surgery center” that provides dentistry only for children under general anesthesia, was closed June 16 and reopened June 19 after staff received numerous online death threats. Administrator David Thompson said several users posted about committing a mass shooting.

Dawson said she is not in favor of those kind of comments and called it “a homegrown terrorist act.”