Mother, daughter killed by wrong-way driver

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A wrong-way driver hit and killed a South Fulton County mother and her 7-year-old daughter on I-75 in Monroe County.
 
Monserrat Godinez and her daughter, Alani, were together until the very end.
 
The 29-year-old Godinez and her 7-year-old daughter were heading home from a sleepover Saturday morning.
 
It was around 2 a.m. on I-75 in Monroe County when authorities say a 32-year-old wrong-way driver crashed into them.
 
The sheriff's office says they had a report of a wrong-way driver on I-75 just moments before the crash.
 
Godinez lived in College Park, and family members and friends gathered at a home in East Point all day Monday to mourn together.
 
"Everybody around has taken this really hard," friend Alex Grimes said.
 
Grimes says everyone is waiting for autopsy results to determine if the driver was under the influence.
 
They have plenty questions in a case that claimed the lives of two beloved people.
 
"They're together and I think that's the only thing that's the comfort," Grimes said.
 
Godinez also leaves behind a 9-year-old son and a husband who works for the Smyrna Police Department.
 
"He's out there trying to help people and make sure people are doing the right thing, and he wasn't able to help his own wife," Grimes said.
 
The community has raised more than $15,000 for funeral expenses and to help get her family here from Mexico.

Cox Media Group