Yorba Linda mourns dead
Victims of Sunday’s plane crash are remembered at a candlelight vigil as mystery swirls over pilot’s past
Four days earlier, they raced to put out the flaming wreckage of a small plane that had pelted their quiet Orange County neighborhood. On Thursday night, they lighted candles to remember the four people killed when pieces of the plane came hurtling out of the sky and set a home on fire.
About 1,000 people gathered for a vigil at Glenknoll Elementary School in Yorba Linda, a few blocks from the crash site. They mourned Roy Lee Anderson and Dahlia Marlies Leber Anderson, two residents who died in their home Sunday, along with Stacie Norene Leber and Donald Paul Elliott, who were visiting the couple.
Ron Elenbaas lived across the street from the Andersons for the last two decades. Roy Anderson, 85, was Elenbaas’ “paper boy,” he joked. For 20 years, Anderson picked up the paper at 5 a.m. from Elenbaas’ driveway, read it, repackaged it and brought it to his door. In the evenings, Elenbaas would cross the street for a drink with his friends on the porch: red wine for Ron, Chardonnay for Dahlia.
Josh Anguiano showed up to the vigil in his postal uniform. For two years, Anguiano has delivered mail to the Andersons’ street. He didn’t know them well — he exchanged pleasantries with Roy when handing over the mail — but felt he needed to be there Thursday.
“They’re my customers,” he said.
Mark Jackson, pastor of the Bridge Church in Corona, called Elliott a “very, very close friend” who attended his church for 20 years. Elliot’s faith had been strengthened by a near-fatal
accident years ago, when a truck he was fixing fell on him, Jackson said.
On Sunday morning, like most every Sunday, Jackson said, Elliott was worshiping in his church.
“And that afternoon, we heard he was worshiping God in heaven.”
About 1:45 p.m. Sunday, with most of the neighborhood readying for the Super Bowl, the Cessna broke apart about 10 minutes after departing Fullerton Municipal Airport. It fell to the ground in pieces — a propeller bounced off a driveway, an alternator careened into a bathroom, the fuselage sheared through a tree.
The pilot, Antonio Pastini, died.
Neighbors believe the plane’s left wing, including a fuel tank, plunged through the roof of the home. The house was engulfed in flames almost immediately, witnesses said.
Relatives said they were reeling from the crash. “Our family bond is tight, and each member lost in this tragedy represents more than just one role within our family,” they said in a statement.
The home they called “a beacon for so many family and friends” is charred and fenced off. Its roof is split open. A blackened SUV sits in the driveway.
Investigators have said it could take 18 months to finish the investigation into the crash.
Pastini, a 75-year-old Nevada resident, was an enigma himself. Born Jordan Isaacson, he changed his name sometime in the 1970s. He told Nevada newspapers he was a former Chicago detective, and a Chicago police badge and other credentials found at the crash site led authorities to identify Pastini as a former Chicago police officer.
But two days later, the Chicago Police Department said it had never employed an Antonio Pastini nor a Jordan Isaacson. A spokeswoman said the badge had been reported lost in 1978.