Four years ago, these two girls were killed by an illegal alien

* March 29th, 2011 7:34 pm ET

Dave Gibson


On March 30, 2007, in Virginia Beach, Va., a Mexican national named Alfredo Ramos slammed into the rear of a vehicle in which Allison Kuhnhardt, 17 and Tessa Tranchant, 16 were stopped, while waiting at a red light. Ramos, 22, was traveling at a high rate of speed and was drunk at the time. He actually had nearly a .24 blood-alcohol level and could barely see the police officers in front of him. The two high school students had to be cut from their crumpled car and both later died after being taken to the hospital. Ramos suffered only a busted lip.

Though an illegal alien, Alfredo Ramos had been living in Virginia Beach for quite a while and worked at local a Mexican restaurant known as Mi Casita. Ramos had been previously convicted of three separate charges of public intoxication, identity theft, and even a DUI, but continued to live in the area. He speaks only Spanish and required an interpreter at all of his court proceedings.

While Ramos had already been convicted of a DUI, Virginia Beach policy at the time, dictated that an illegal alien be convicted of three DUI's before police would report them to federal immigration authorities. Virginia Beach police have since taken a more active role in determining the citizenship of those they arrest.

Tessa Tranchant's brother Dylan had only been home from Iraq for two weeks, when his sister was killed. Dylan was tasked with identifying his little sister's body. The case gained national fame thanks to the reporting of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

Ramos was eventually sentenced to 24 years in prison on two counts of aggravated manslaughter. He will be deported upon completion of his sentence.

In 2008, I interviewed Ray Tranchant, Tessa’s dad. What follows is the text of that interview:

1)How are you and your family coping with this terrible loss?

It is the biggest challenge of my life. I have been through some hard but fun times being a retired Naval officer, Annapolis graduate, Aircraft Carrier aviator, public school teacher, and now College administrator. The challenges these career paths have taken me pale in comparison to losing a little girl.

If you have suffered a loss of someone close to you that is totally unexpected (death sometimes is more predictable with serious illnesses, age, or severe accidents), no matter what the reason, it is at first almost surreal.

My ex-wife Colette, Kelsey,15 and Dylan, 25 were swept with total emotion and grief immediately and I chose to compartmentalize and suppress my grief so that the task at hand (funeral arrangements, family, and my job) were taken care of. I suffer still, but need help from friends and God to cope. Colette still understandably breaks down a lot and Kelsey is angry about many things in life that I don’t think would have bothered her if her sister were still alive. Dylan moved away from the area and chose to go to a College in Washington D.C. about 200 miles from Virginia Beach. He is an artist and will undoubtedly express himself with music and drawings. All of us are undergoing Therapy and need various medications.

2) What kind of kid was Tessa?

Tessa was a free spirit, and had many gifts, like emotional intelligence. She was very attractive and was everyone’s friend (a social animal that got up at 4:00am in the morning to get ready for High School), a gifted Irish step dancer, and a good surfer, had a great voice, and tickled me with her laugh. She loved comedies; anything with Ben Stiller, Will Farrell, Dave Chappell, Mike Myers, and Borat.

When she smiled, my heart always skipped a beat. She was truly loved by everyone who spent any time with her.

She is buried next to her friend Ali Kunhardt in Princess Anne Memorial Park, next to a statue of an angel. I visit her every Friday, the night she was killed.

The crash site on Virginia Beach BLVD. continues to be a memorial by the community, it always has flowers, balloons, notes and pictures, and has for the past 1.5 years.

3) Are you angry with the local city governments for their role in allowing Ramos to stay in this country?

I am not angry but very disappointed that Ramos was not deported after two previous offenses. He admitted he was an illegal immigrant, admitted that he purchased a fake driver’s license from Florida, and nearly killed a Chesapeake, Virginia police officer with a head-on collision the second time he was arrested. Judge Whitehurst from Chesapeake gave him a fine and he walked. His roommate, a woman with a small baby who shared an apartment out of convenience with Ramos, said essentially that Ramos was not worried or fazed with the Whitehurst hearing and continued to come home drunk every night. Apparently he wasn’t worried about being deported or even the need to get sober, because he continued the same behavior, which ultimately killed Tessa and Ali.

I am disappointed at the way the municipalities, the Commonwealth, and the Federal Government interact with immigration issues. Enforcement varies from city to city and state to state, and all of the states that interact with ICE claim that they get no support once ICE is notified. Of course ICE want to do their job, but they are greatly outnumbered and don’t have the funds to integrate criminal databases to catch criminal illegal offenders. Some of the illegals have been quoted as saying, after receiving jail time and even deportation: “don’t worry. I’ll be back!â€