JUNE 10, 2013
SANTA MARINO — Friends and family of Marcos and Mara Franco gathered on Sunday evening to remember a father and daughter who were gunned down during the violent rampage in Santa Marino and inside Santa Marino College on Friday.
Although Mara’s aunt Margaret Quinones-Munoz said that she loved her niece, during her lifetime her fallen niece was morose and self-absorbed. An aspiring clinical psychologist, she was known to shun strangers and alienate friends with a series of intrusive questions. “To us she was just sort of there,” Quinones-Munoz said.
Quinones-Munoz described Marcos Franco as a man who avoided work and expected his family to fend for itself. Marcos rarely showed emotion, said Quinones-Munoz, preferring instead to enjoy beer on the couch and watch sporting events. Boxing was his favorite.
But as the family gathered in the hospital Friday awaiting news of Mara Franco’s fate, Leticia, her mother, checked her voicemail. There was an unusual message from Marcos, who had called her shortly before a gunman sprayed his SUV with bullets. “I’m running a little late,” Marcos said in the message. “But I want you to pick up a six pack of Tecate on the way home.” This was the last she would ever hear from him.
Santa Marino College is gathering collections to help the Franco family pay for the funerals for Carlos and Marcela Franco.