‘All my babies are gone’
Shattered parents struggle to cope in wake of collision that claimed three children and their grandfather
A Sunday afternoon drive in the early autumn sunshine. Grandparents riding in a minivan with the grandkids. The scene contained no hint of the horror to come. But it did come — family normalcy shattered in a violent flash.
What’s left now for Jennifer Neville-Lake and her husband, Edward Lake, is unimaginable. Their three children are dead, along with the children’s grandfather.
Their grandmother and great-grandmother are still hospitalized with injuries.
It’s the tragic result of a three-car collision north of Kleinburg that police believe was caused by a reckless drunk driver. The accused was born into a family that has a real estate development empire in the GTA.
“Hell’s a lot nicer than this,” Lake said. “We close our eyes and they’re all we see. This is a nightmare that will never go away.”
York Regional Police say the collision occurred Sunday at Kirby Rd. and Kipling Ave., a crossroads with a stop sign, surrounded by farmers’ fields. Around 4:10 p.m., the accused’s SUV allegedly shot into the intersection, slammed into the side of the Neville-Lakes’ minivan and then struck a third vehicle, according to Crown lawyer Brian McCallion.
Gary Neville, the 65-year-old grandfather driving the minivan, never had a chance. Police said he died at the scene.
His 9-year-old grandson, Daniel Neville-Lake, a Cub Scout who adored Star Wars and Lego and wasn’t scared to be the only boy in his ballet class, was transported with grave injuries to hospital, where he died Sunday evening. His little brother and sister died shortly after midnight, their parents at their beds. Harry was 5, Millie only 2.
“All my babies are gone,” Neville-Lake told the Star on Monday, her voice breaking. “I just can’t believe this is happening. It was just another overnight (outing), like the hundreds of others.”
Also injured in the crash were Neriza Neville and Josephina Frias, the children’s grandmother and greatgrandmother. Police said they were in stable condition Monday and were expected to survive.
Marco Muzzo, 29, is facing18 charges, including four counts of impaired driving causing death. He appeared in a Newmarket court Monday morning, where his bail hearing was adjourned until Friday. McCallion said his release will be contested.
Muzzo is the grandson of the wellknown billionaire developer of the same name, who died in 2005.
Monday night, an online Go Fund Me page set up for the Neville-Lake family raised more than $71,000.
The parents said they were astounded by the support.
“We were worried about how to pay for funeral costs. But how do you pay for four at once?” asked Edward.
The family’s Brampton backyard was still cluttered Monday with Lit- tle Tikes wagons and mini-basketball nets. Inside, the walls were papered with crayon drawings and painting projects.
Harry, the 5-year-old, had several physical disabilities, including heart trouble and skeletal problems. This led to an amputation of a finger.
“We were told he wouldn’t walk . . . but he learned how to ride a bike (equipped with special handlebars),” Neville-Lake recalled.
He’d scamper into his parents’ bed in the morning and “contort himself like a tortoise,” she laughed.
Daniel, the 9-year-old, learned at an early age how to assist Harry, helping him into his chair and cradling him while they played Nintendo Wii.
Harry also had a strategic mind, sinking his baby teeth into board games like Catan.
Millie — short for Milagros, which means “miracle” in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines — would have turned 3 in December. “She was feisty,” her mother said. Her voice breaking, Neville-Lake recounted how she was at home Sunday waiting for her father and mother to drop off the three children — “the monsters” — in Brampton after a weekend with the grandparents in King City. Her dad, Gary, was running more than an hour late.
“I turned on the news,” she said. “They showed a flash of the scene. My eyes immediately went to the van and I said, ‘That’s my van.’ I screamed.”
Hearing the news, Edward left his shift at a Mississauga grocery store and drove to a police station with his wife.
“That’s when they told us it wasn’t just my dad. They said my oldest son was dead too,” she said, tears running down her cheeks.
They next drove to the Hospital for Sick Children, where a doctor told them that Harry and Millie were being kept alive through “extraordinary measures.”
“Basically they had no brain function. They were already cold,” Neville-Lake said. “The part that made them Millie and the part that made them Harry was already gone.”
She called her mother, who was in care at St. Michael’s Hospital following the crash. “I said, ‘Mommy, we need you to sing to them. We need you to stop screaming, for them.’ ”
She did, managing to sing Millie’s favourite lullaby, the “I Love You” song from Barney & Friends.
The doctors placed the two beds beside one another, moved the children close and placed their hands together as their parents lay down beside them.
“We all sang ‘Somewhere over The Rainbow,’ and my babies’ machines stopped.”